No description available.

With the purpose of studying the mechanical properties of uncompacted rockfill and the creep deformation behaviour of rockfill under a load as well as finding a suitable method for estimation of creep deformation behaviour, a full scale embankment loading experiment was performed. The results of this experiment were then evaluated. During the course of this study it became evident to the author that the deformations which were seen in the collected data from the experiment could be classified as creep deformations due to the linear decrease of the deformation against the logarithm of time and the study therefore came to focus on creep. One constitutive equation and one model for estimation of creep deformations were studied, and parameters were obtained through back analysis of experiment data as well as calculation of soil stresses. The creep model was based on a logarithmic approximation of the creep deformations and the creep equation was based on a power function. The creep model could also be simplified and evaluated as an equation and when a comparison was made between the equations and the measured results this showed that the logarithmic equation resulted in estimates closer to the measured deformations than what the power function did, therefore a logarithmic function is a better approximation to the deformations of the rockfill at Norvik than the power function. When the creep model was evaluated as intended, based on the soil stresses, the resulting creep estimates were less accurate, they was however still within the limits of what can be considered as admissible. The conclusion is that a logarithmic function describes the creep deformation of the rockfill at Norvik better than a power function and that the creep model by Kristensen is suitable for estimating the creep deformations. This since the creep model also provides a way of estimating deformations occurring under stress conditions other than the ones for which the creep test was performed.

No description available.

No description available.

In this paper, the complete double layer boundary integral equation formulation for Stokes flows is extended to viscoelastic fluids to solve the mobility problem for a system of particles, where the non-linearity is handled by particular solutions of the Stokes inhomogeneous equation. Some techniques of the meshless method are employed and a point-wise solver is used to solve the viscoelastic constitutive equation. Hence volume meshing is avoided. The method is tested against the numerical solution for a sphere settling in the Odroyd-B fluid and some results on a prolate motion in shear flow of the Oldroyd-B fluid are reported and compared with some theoretical and experimental results. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

A novel method of calculating viscosity from molecular dynamics simulations is developed, benchmarked, and tested. The technique is a transient method which has the potential to reduce CPU requirements for many conditions. An initial sinusoidal velocity profile is overlaid upon the peculiar velocities of the individual molecules in an equilibrated simulation. The transient relaxation of this initial velocity profile is then compared to the corresponding analytical solution of the momentum equation by adjusting the viscosity-related parameters in the constitutive equation that relate the shear rate to the stress tensor. The newly developed Transient Molecular Dynamics (TMD) method was tested for a Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluid over a wide range of densities and temperatures. The simulated values were compared to an analytical solution of the boundary value problem for a Newtonian fluid. The resultant viscosities agreed well with those published for Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics (EMD) simulations up to a dimensionless density of 0.7. Application of a linear viscoelastic Maxwell constitutive equation was required to achieve good agreement at dimensionless densities greater than 0.7. When the Newtonian model is used for densities in the range of 0.1 to 0.3 and the Maxwell model is used for densities higher than 0.3, the TMD method was able to predict viscosities with an uncertainty of 10% or better. Application of the TMD method to multi-site molecules required the Jeffreys constitutive equation to adequately fit the simulation responses. TMD simulations were performed on model fluids representing n-butane, isobutane, n-hexane, water, methanol, and hexanol. Molecules with strong hydrogen bonding and Coulombic interactions agreed well with NEMD simulated values and experimental values. Simulated viscosities for nonpolar and larger molecules agreed with NEMD simulations at low to moderate densities, but deviated from these values at higher densities. These deviations are explainable in terms of potential model inaccuracies and the shear-rate dependence of both NEMD and TMD viscosity values. Results show that accurate viscosity predictions can be made for multi-site molecules as long as the shear-rate dependence of the viscosity is not too large or is adequately addressed.

No description available.

Al₃Ti, Al₅CuTi₂, and Al₆₆Mn₁₁Ti₂₃, intermetallic matrices reinforced with 30, 40, and 50 volume % TiB, have been produced by XD_™ processing and densified into bulk form by powder metallurgy techniques. The compressive flow behavior of the Al₃Ti and Al₅CuTi₂, composites have been evaluated at temperatures ranging from 1000°C to 1200°C and strain rates of 0.0001 and 0.001 sec⁻¹. The results have been analyzed by a correlation to the resulting microstructure, especially with regards to the intermetallic matrix composition, TiB₂ size, and interparticle spacing. The results of these analyses are applied to a constitutive equation based upon the flow stress equation. It has been shown that at in this temperature regime, all deformation occurs within the intermetallic matrix. This is substantiated by the lack of TiB₂-dependent behavior with variations in volume percentage of reinforcement. In all cases, the composites are readily deformed at relatively low loads. The average strain-rate sensitivity values were 0.349 for the Al₃Ti-based composites, and 0.247 for the Al₅CuTi₂, variants. The average activation energies were calculated to be 485 kJ/mol and 920 kJ/mol for the Al₃Ti-and Al₅CuTi₂-matrices, respectively. The structure constant was calculated based upon these values. The Zener-Hollomon parameter was used to plot the flow stress along lines of constant temperature and strain rate, and serves as one type of constitutive equation. In addition, the flow stress was evaluated as a function of the strain rate and temperature. These models were found to provide adequate correlation to the measured flow behavior. / Master of Science

Escoamentos viscoelásticos não estacionários com superfícies livres são comuns em muitos processos industriais e diversas técnicas numéricas têm sido empregadas para reproduzir computacionalmente estes processos. A maioria dos modelos empregados utiliza equações diferenciais na definição do tensor de tensões. Porém, para alguns grupos de fluidos complexos, por exemplo, fluidos de Boger, os modelos integrais mostram-se mais capacitados em fornecer uma boa aproximação para os comportamentos não lineares desses fluidos. Este trabalho trata da solução numérica do modelo constitutivo integral KBKZ-PSM para escoamentos transientes bidimensionais com superfícies livres. O método numérico proposto é uma técnica numérica que utiliza diferenças finitas para simular escoamentos com superfícies livres na presença de paredes sólidas. As principais características do método numérico proposto são: solução das equações de conservação de quantidade de movimento e massa utilizando um método semi-implícito; a condição de contorno na superfície livre é acoplada à equação de Poisson, o que garante conservação de massa; a discretização do tempo t é realizada por uma nova técnica numérica; o tensor de Finger é calculado pelo método dos campos de deformação e avançado no tempo pelo método de Euler modificado. Essa nova técnica é verificada em escoamentos cisalhantes e elongacionais. Adicionalmente, uma solução analítica desenvolvida para escoamentos em canais bidimensionais é empregada para verificar e analisar a convergência do método proposto. Com relação a escoamentos com superfícies livres, a convergência é verificada por meio de refinamento de malha nas simulações de um jato incidindo sobre placa rígida e no problema do inchamento do extrudado. Finalmente, o método é aplicado para investigar os problemas jet buckling e inchamento do extrudado de fluidos KBKZ-PSM. / Unsteady viscoelastic free surface flows are common in many industrial processes and a variety of numerical techniques have been employed to simulate these flows. The majority of constitutive models employed are based on differential equations to define the extra stress tensor. However, for some complex fluids, for instance, Boger fluids, integral models are more adequate to approximate the nonlinear behaviour of these fluids. This work deals with the numerical solution of the integral constitutive model KBKZ-PSM for two-dimensional unsteady free surface flows. The proposed numerical method is a numerical technique that employs finite differences to simulate moving free surface flows that interact with solid walls. The main features of the method are: numerical solution of the momentum and mass equations by an implicit method; the pressure condition on the free surface is implicitly coupled with the Poisson equation for obtaining the pressure field from mass conservation; a novel scheme for defining the past times t is employed; the Finger tensor is calculated by the deformation fields method and is advanced in time by the modified Euler method. This new technique is verified by solving shear and uniaxial elongational flows. Moreover, an analytic solution for channel flows is obtained that is used in the verification and convergence analysis of the proposed methodology. For free surface flows, the assessment of convergence lies on the mesh refinement on the simulation of a jet impinging on a flat surface and the extrudade swell problem. Finally, the new method is applied to investigate the jet buckling phenomenon and extrudate swell of KBKZ-PSM fluids.

In order to evaluate a methane gas productivity of methane hydrate reservoirs, it is necessary to develop a numeric simulator predicting gas production behavior. For precise assessment of long-term gas productivity, it is important to develop a mathematical model which describes mechanical behaviors of methane hydrate reservoirs in consideration of their time-dependent properties and to introduce it into the numeric simulator. In this study, based on previous experimental results of triaxial compression tests of Toyoura sand containing synthetic methane hydrate, stress-strain relationships were formulated by variable-compliance-type constitutive model. The suggested model takes into account the time-dependent property obtained from laboratory investigation that time dependency of methane hydrate bearing sediment is influenced by methane hydrate saturation and effective confining pressure. Validity of the suggested model should be verified by other laboratory experiments on time-dependent behaviors of methane hydrate bearing sediment.