The peel test is a commonly used testing method for adhesive strength evaluation. The test involves peeling a pressure sensitive tape away from a substrate and measuring the peel force that is applied to rupture the adhesive bond. In the present study, the mechanics of the peel test is analyzed based on a cohesive zone model. Cohesive failure is assumed to prevail in the vicinity of the peel front, that is, the adhesive fails not by debonding from the adherends but by splitting of the adhesive itself. Generally, the failure of the adhesive is accompanied with a process of cavitation and fibrillation. Therefore, the cohesive zone is modeled as a continuous fibrillated region. A Maxwell model is employed to characterize the viscoelastic behavior of the adhesive. The governing equation and boundary conditions that describe the mechanics of the peel test are derived. Numerical results are obtained under steady state conditions. The model predicts the peel force in terms of the peel rate, the peel angle, the nature of the adhesive, and the properties of the backing and the substrate. The traction distribution on the substrate surface is found to depend on various test parameters. Finally, finite element analysis is performed using the commercial software package ABAQUS. The results from FEA are compared with those from the mathematical method to evaluate the validity of the present model. The effective range of the present model is found to be related to the ratio of the critical fibril length to the extent of the cohesive zone. Given the nature of the adhesive as well as the properties of the backing and the substrate, the proposed model is able to predict the peel force and the traction distribution in terms of the peel rate and the peel angle, and thus provides a measure of the strength of the adhesive bond.

A multiple scale theory is developed for the prediction of damage evolution in heterogeneous viscoelastic media. Asymptotic expansions of the field variables are used to derive a global scale viscoelastic constitutive equation that includes the effects of local scale damage. Damage, in the form discrete cracks, is allowed to grow according to a micromechanically-based viscoelastic traction-displacement law. Finite element formulations have been developed for both the global and local scale problems. These formulations have been implemented into a two-scale computational model Numerical results are given for several example problems in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique.

No description available.

L’objectif principal de ce travail est la compréhension des mécanismes qui gouvernent la fissuration assistée par l’hydrogène dans les métaux, en s’appuyant sur l’analyse expérimentale de la propagation des fissures en atmosphère hydrogénant et de l’interaction entre hydrogène et défauts cristallins, et sur le développement d’un modèle de zone cohésive influencé par l’hydrogène.Des essais de propagation de fissure de fatigue ont été réalisés sous haute pression d'hydrogène gazeux sur le fer de pureté commerciale Armco. Les résultats montrent une forte influence de la pression, de la fréquence et de la valeur de ΔK sur la modification des modes de rupture, et, par conséquent, sur les vitesses de propagation. Afin d’identifier les paramètres physiques pertinents qui gouvernent les modes de rupture, une étude sur l’interaction entre hydrogène et défauts cristallins développés lors d’une sollicitation cyclique a été réalisée. Nous avons observé une augmentation de l’absorption totale d’hydrogène avec la déformation plastique cumulée, qui peut être attribuée à l’augmentation du piégeage de l'hydrogène par les dislocations générées au cours de la déformation. Ces données seront ensuite introduites dans un modèle pour reproduire la modification de la diffusion de l’hydrogène en pointe de fissure, et son effet sur la plasticité.Par ailleurs, des mesures de la déformation plastique hors plan en pointe de fissure en présence d’hydrogène ont permis de proposer une amélioration d’un modèle de zone cohésive en introduisant un effet de l’hydrogène sur le comportement plastique des éléments de volume. De plus, l'étude des composantes de la loi de diffusion de Krom a montré l'importance du gradient de contrainte hydrostatique sur la diffusion et l'accumulation de l'hydrogène en pointe de fissure. Le modèle prédit une forte dépendance de la propagation de fissures vis-à-vis de la diffusion de l’hydrogène en pointe de fissure, et est capable de simuler la propagation de fissure sous chargement statique, validant ainsi la superposition d’une composante de fissuration cyclique et d’une contribution statique (due à la présence d’hydrogène), et expliquant la transition des vitesses de propagation observée expérimentalement. / The main purpose of this work is to understand the mechanisms that govern hydrogen assisted cracking in metals, based on the experimental analysis of crack propagation data under gaseous hydrogen and the interaction between hydrogen and lattice defects on the one hand, and on the development of a cohesive zone model influenced by hydrogen on the other hand.Fatigue crack propagation tests were performed under high pressure of gaseous hydrogen on the Armco iron. The results show a strong influence of the pressure, the frequency and the ΔK value, on the modification of the failure modes and on the fatigue crack growth rates. In order to identify the physical parameters that govern the changing of the failure modes, a study on the interaction between hydrogen and the crystallographic defects developed during a cyclic loading was performed. We observe an increase in the total absorption of hydrogen with the cumulated plastic deformation, which can be attributed to the increase in the hydrogen trapping by the dislocations generated during the cyclic deformation. These data have to be introduced into a numerical model to reproduce the modification of the hydrogen diffusion at the crack tip, and its effect on plasticity.Moreover, measurements of the out-of-plane plastic deformation at the crack tip in presence of hydrogen have conducted to an improvement of the cohesive zone model by introducing an effect of hydrogen on the plastic behavior of the volume elements. In addition, the study of Krom diffusion law components has shown the importance of the hydrostatic stress gradient on the diffusion and accumulation of hydrogen at the crack tip. The model predicts a strong dependence of the crack propagation with respect to the hydrogen diffusion at the crack tip, and it is able to simulate the propagation under static load, thus validating the cyclic cracking and static cracking superposition, and explaining the transient regime in fatigue crack growth rates experimentally observed.

An alternative point of view with regard to understanding the mechanism of energy transfer involved to create new surface is considered in this study. A combination of transport equation and cohesive element is presented. A practical demonstration in 1-D is presented to simulate the mechanism of energy transfer in a damage zone model for both elastic and elastic-plastic materials. The combination of transport and cohesion element shows the extent elastic energy plays to supply the energy required for crack growth. Meanwhile, plastic energy dissipation for an elastic-plastic material is shown to be well described by the transport approach. The cohesive zone model is one of many alternative approaches used to simulate fatigue crack growth. The model incorporates a relationship between cohesive traction and separation in the zone ahead of a crack tip. The model introduces irreversibility into the constitutive relationships by means of damage accumulation with cyclic loading. The traction-separation relationship underpinning the cohesive zone model is not required to follow a predetermined path, but is dependent on irreversibility introduced by decreasing a critical cohesive traction parameter. The approach can simulate fatigue crack growth without the need for re-meshing and caters for constant amplitude loading and single overloading. This study shows the retardation phenomenon occurring in elastic plastic-materials due to single overloading. Plastic materials can generate a significant plastic zone at the crack which is shown to be well captured by the cohesive zone model approach. In a cohesive zone model, fatigue crack growth involves the dissipation of separation energy released per cycle. The crack advance is defined by the total energy separation dissipated term equal to the critical energy release rate or toughness. The effect of varying toughness with the assumption that the critical traction remains fixed is investigated here. This study reveals that varying toughness does not significantly affect the stress distribution along the crack path. However, plastic energy dissipation can significantly increase with toughness. A new methodology called the fast-track method is introduced to accelerate the simulation of fatigue crack growth. The method adopts an artificial material toughness. The basic idea of the proposed method is to decrease the number of cycle for computation by reducing the toughness. By establishing a functional relationship between the number of cycles and variable artificial toughness, the real number of cycles can be predicted. The proposed method is shown to be an excellent agreement with the numerical results for both constant amplitude loading and single overloading. A new approach to predict fatigue crack growth curves is presented. The approach combines the fast-track method and an extrapolation methodology. The basic concept is to establish a function relationship using the curve fitting technique applied to data obtained from preliminary calculation of fast-track methodology. It is shown in this thesis that the new methodology provides excellent agreement with an empirical model. The methodology is limited to constant amplitude loading and small scale yielding conditions. It is shown in the thesis that fatigue crack growth curves for variable amplitude loading can be predicted by using the data set for fatigue crack growth rate for constant amplitude loading. A retardation parameter can be deduced from the number of cycles delayed using the cohesive zone model. The retardation parameter is established by performing calculation for different toughness. This methodology is shown to give good agreement with results from empirical models for different variable amplitude loading conditions.

This research project seeks to improve soil properties through experimentation with geotechnical purposes. For this, will be used natural volcanic pozzolana in 5%, 10%, 15% and brick dust in 10% giving it a second reuse. The soil improvement will be analyzed with the proposed additions and its influence on the results. It is concluded that the addition improves the behavior of the soil by decreasing its plasticity index, increases the compaction index and improves the geotechnical parameters.

No description available.

The accuracy of sediment transport models depends on identifying an appropriate sediment settling velocity. Determining this value for mud suspensions can be difficult because cohesive mud particles can aggregate, forming flocs whose sizes are a function of hydrodynamic and physiochemical conditions of the suspension. Here we present a new model refining the predicted floc size based on hydrodynamic conditions and inherited floc sizes, as well as on the salinity of the fluid environment. The improvements come from modifications made to the Winterwerp (1998) (W98) model. These improvements include: limiting floc size to the Kolmogorov microscale and including an initial salinity dependence. Limiting floc size in this way brings the model predictions more in line with flocculation theory and experimental observations. The salinity dependence was introduced based on a preliminary set of experiments that were conducted to examine floc growth rate and equilibrium size under different salinity conditions. In these experiments, increasing salinity from 2.5 to 10 PSU did not affect equilibrium floc size. However, the increases in salinity did result in longer times to equilibrium and an apparent increase in floc density or fractal dimension. The modified W98 model allows calibrated aggregation and breakup coefficients obtained under one set of concentration values (for both sediment and salinity) to be used to predict floc size under other concentration conditions. Comparing the modified W98 model with laboratory data shows more accurate predictive values, indicating that the modified W98 equation is a promising tool for incorporation into larger sediment transport models. / Master of Science

Laminated carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites are already well established in structural applications where high specific strength and stiffness are required. Damage in these laminates is usually localised and may involve numerous mechanisms, such as matrix cracking, laminate delamination, fibre debonding or fibre breakage. Microstructures in CFRPs are non-uniform and irregular, resulting in an element of randomness in the localised damage. This may in turn affect the global properties and failure parameters of components made of CFRPs. This raises the question of whether the inherent stochasticity of localised damage is of significance for application of such materials. This PhD project is aimed at developing numerical models to analyze the effect of material randomness on delamination damage in CFRP materials by the implementation of the cohesive-zone model (CZM) within the framework of the finite-element (FE) method. Both the unidirectional and cross-ply laminates subjected to quasi-static loading conditions were studied. The initiation and propagation in delamination of unidirectional CFRP laminates were analyzed. The CZM was used to simulate the progress of that failure mechanism in a pre-cracked double-cantilever beam (DCB) specimen loaded under mode-I employing initially, a two-dimensional FE model. Model validation was then carried out comparing the numerical results with experimental data. The inherent microstructural stochasticity of CFRP laminates was accounted for in the simulations, and various statistical realizations for a half-scatter of 50% of fracture energy were performed, based on the approximation of that parameter with the Weibull s two-parameter probability density function. More detailed analyses were undertaken employing three-dimensional DCB models, and a number of statistical realizations based on variation of fracture energy were presented. In contrast to the results of two-dimensional analyses, simulations with 3D models demonstrated a lower load-bearing capacity for most of the random models as compared to the deterministic model with uniform material properties. The damaged area and the crack lengths in laminates were analyzed, and the results showed higher values of those parameters for random realizations compared to the uniform case for the same levels of applied displacement. The effect of material randomness on delamination in CFRP cross-ply laminates was also investigated. Initially, two-dimensional finite-element analyses were carried out to study the effect of microstructural randomness in a cross-ply laminate under bending with the direct introduction of matrix cracks with varying spacings and delamination zones. A considerable variation in the stiffness for cases with different crack spacings suggested that the assumption of averaged distributions of defects can lead to unreliable predictions of structural response. Three-dimensional uniform, deterministic cross-ply laminate models subjected to a tensile load were analyzed to study the delamination initiation and propagation from the tips of a pre-existing matrix crack. The material s stochasticity was then introduced, and a number of random statistical realizations were analyzed. It was observed that by neglecting the inherent material randomness of CFRP laminates, the initiation conditions for delamination as well as the character of its propagation cannot be properly detected and studied. For instance, the delamination crack length value for all the simulated random statistical realizations predicted its higher magnitudes compared to the uniform (deterministic) case for the same value of applied strain. Furthermore, the location of delamination initiation was shown to be different for different random statistical realizations. Another aspect, emphasizing the importance of microstructural randomness, was the scatter in the magnitudes of global strain at the instance of initiation and subsequent propagation of delamination. In summary, the material randomness in CFRPs can induce randomness in localised damage and it can affect the global properties of laminates and critical failure parameters. These effects can be investigated computationally through the use of stochastic cohesive-zone elements.

abstract: Many researchers have pointed out that sentence complexity plays an important role in language maturity. Using cohesive devices is a critical method to composing complicated sentences. Several grammatical researchers give cohesive devices different definitions and categories in the perspective of pure linguistics, yet little is known about the Chinese learners' acquisition situations of cohesive devices in the field of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL). Combined with these definitions and pedagogical theories, the acquisition situations of four grammatical features of cohesive devices and eleven logical relations are discussed in this thesis. This thesis expects that through discovering different features of cohesive devices among different student levels, educators of Chinese will gain a more comprehensive understanding of the acquisition orders and features of conjunctive devices. In this study, I examine the teaching orders of cohesive devices in selected textbooks from first-year Chinese through fourth-year Chinese. Three groups of students were required to complete two essays based on the same topics and prompts. Twenty-eight valid writing samples are examined in total, including ten writing samples from fourth-year students, another ten from third-year students, and eight from second-year students. The results show that there are no obvious differences among the three levels of students in their use of certain grammatical features and logical relations of cohesive devices. Students in these three levels have difficulty understanding how to connect paragraphs together fluently and accurately in their compositions. Pedagogical implications include some suggestions about designing instructional writing assignments in order to give more clearly pedagogical instructions for teaching cohesive devices. In addition, comprehensible directions that explain which logical relations should be taught every academic year are proposed. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. East Asian Languages and Civilizations 2013