Modelling damage in composite materials has played an important role in designing composite structures. Although numerical models for the progressive damage in laminated composites (e.g. transverse cracking, delamination and fibre breakage) have been developed in the literature, there is still a need for further improvement. This thesis aimed at developing damage models suitable for predicting intra-laminar and inter-laminar damage behaviour in fibre-reinforced composite materials. Several approaches such as fracture mechanics and continuum damage mechanics have been adopted for constructing the damage model. Meso-macro-mechanics analysis was performed to gain an insight into the entire damage process up to the final failure of the composite laminate under various conditions. Cohesive elements were placed in the finite element model to simulate the initiation and propagation of matrix crack and delamination in cross-ply laminates. This helped to understand the direct interactions between damage modes, i.e. whether one damage mode would initiate the other damage mode. The formation of a single matrix crack and its propagation across the layer thickness was also revealed. A new cohesive zone/interface element model was developed to consider the effect of through-thickness compressive stress on mode II fracture resistance by introducing friction into the constitutive law of the conventional cohesive zone model. Application of the model to practical problem in composite laminates shows that this model can simulate delamination failure more accurately than the cohesive element in ABAQUS.Damage models based on continuum damage mechanics were proposed for predicting intra-laminar damage and interlaminar damage. Five intra-laminar failure modes, fibre tension, fibre compression, matrix tension, matrix compression and shear failure, were modelled. Damage initiation was predicted based on stress/strain failure criteria and damage evolution law was based on fracture energy dissipation. The nonlinear shear behaviour of the material was considered as well. These models have been implemented into ABAQUS via a user-defined material subroutine and validated against experimental/numerical results available in the literature. The issue related to numerical implementation, e.g. convergence in the softening regime, was also addressed. Numerical simulation of the indentation test on filament-wound pipe was finally conducted and damages generated in the pipe were predicted using the above developed damage models. The predictions show an excellent agreement with experimental observations including load/indentation responses and multiple delaminations shape and size. Attempt was made to detect damage-induced leakage path in the pipe after indentation.

No description available.

As we all know that Taiwan is an island surrounded by oceans. Around the island are many international commercial harbors, domestic fishery harbors and harbors for industrial purposes. However, these harbors are facing safety challenges from the strong wind induced waves during monsoon seasons and typhoon due to tropical depressions. The material degradation, fatigue induced from vibrations and the forced deformation of the whole structural system can not usually be observed until serious damages are realized. It is too late to do the fixing job or to replace the damaged components for the harbor while spending multi-million dollars on rebuilding the damaged facilities is the left choice. If we may find the gradual damages of the harbor in advance and establish a procedure to do the minor fixing or correcting works then during the hash environmental situations the serious damages may be prevented and lots of money can be saved also. There are many ways to do a routine inspection on the structures. However, for the structures in the harbor usually it is not quite easy to do this due to the fact that most structures are under the water. Therefore how to find the efficient and economic methods to investigate the harbor damages corresponding to various material constructions and based on the examination results to establish an alert system and to grade the damage-state will be important. The investigation methods may generally be divided into a general method and method of more detailed. The general methods usually need more experiences but less equipment. However, for the more detailed examination, more advanced equipment and scheme are required. After the inspection how to coordinate the raw data and find the relationship between the data and the damage-state of the structure will be one of the tasks. It is the purpose of this project to find efficient means for the inspection and set up a standard procedure to inspect the harbor structures routinely. In terms of the method, timing, schedule, frequency and appropriateness the evaluation standard for the structural damage is suggested and based on the evaluated results the damage grade is defined quantitatively for the harbor structures. Thus the harbor bureau may effectively manage the harbor structure and maintain the operational safety for the harbor.

Environmental issues enforce transportation sectors to limit their carbon dioxide emissions in various ways. Automotive manufacturers attempt to reduce carbon dioxide emission by seeking various strategies, e.g., increasing aerodynamic efficiency, using more fuel-efficient engines, reducing friction and wear of transmission systems, and, most importantly, by using lightweight materials and structures. This dissertation is a contribution toward a lightweight design of structures by proposing numerical models suitable for damage prediction of thermoplastic composite materials. In this dissertation, predictive damage models for two different length scales, namely micromechanics, and mesomechanics, were proposed. Micromechanics is used to predict the nonlinear damage behavior of elementary thermoplastic composite ply, while the mesomechanics is used to predict the failure behavior of thermoplastic composite laminates (test coupon or plate scale). For the micromechanics, a representative volume element (RVE) of such materials was rigorously determined using a geometrical two-point probability function and the eigenvalue stabilization of homogenized elastic tensor obtained by Hill-Mandel kinematic homogenization. We proposed a viscoelastic viscoplastic model for the polypropylene matrix to extend the capability of the micromechanics model in predicting the damage behavior of the composite ply at higher rates. At the mesoscale, we improved the classical mesomechanics damage modeling in the off-axis direction by introducing the confinement effect. The pragmatic approach consists of separating the progressive damage into two parts, namely “diffuse damage regime” and “transverse-cracking regime”, were described by two distinct damage parameters. We also enriched the mesomechanics model by proposing a viscoelastic and viscoplastic model to account for the rate-dependent behavior of the thermoplastic composites. We showed that the predictions given by the proposed micromechanics and mesomechanics models were in excellent agreement with the experimental results in terms of the global stress-strain curves, including the linear and nonlinear portion of the response and also the failure point, making it useful virtual testing tools for the design of thermoplastic composites.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing has gained significant advancement in recent years. However the potential of 3D printed metals still has not been fully explored. A main reason is the lack of accurate knowledge of the load capacity of 3D printed metals, such as fatigue behavior under cyclic load conditions, which is still poorly understood as compared with the conventional wrought counterpart. The goal of the thesis is to advance the knowledge of fatigue behavior of 15-5 PH stainless steel manufactured through laser powder bed fusion process. To achieve the goal, a combined numerical and experimental study is carried out. First, using a rotary fatigue testing experiment, the fatigue life of the 15-5 PH stainless steel is measured. The strain life curve shows that the numbers of the reversals to failure increase from 13,403 to 46,760 as the applied strain magnitudes decrease from 0.214\% from 0.132\%, respectively. The micro-structure analysis shows that predominantly brittle fracture is presented on the fractured surface. Second, a finite element model based on cyclic plasticity including the damage model is developed to predict the fatigue life. The model is calibrated with two cases: one is the fatigue life of 3D printed 17-4 stainless steel under constant amplitude strain load using the direct cyclic method, and the other one is the cyclic behavior of Alloy 617 under multi-amplitude strain loads using the static analysis method. Both validation models show a good correlation with the literature experimental data. Finally, after the validation, the finite element model is applied to the 15-5 PH stainless steel. Using the direct cyclic method, the model predicts the fatigue life of 15-5 PH stainless steel under constant amplitude strain. The extension of the prediction curve matches well with the previously measured experimental results, following the combined Coffin-Manson Basquin Law. Under multi-amplitude strain, the kinematic hardening evolution parameter is incorporated into the model. The model is capable to capture the stresses at varied strain amplitudes. Higher stresses are predicted when strain amplitudes are increased. The model presented in the work can be used to design reliable 3D printed metals under cyclic loading conditions.

Externally bonding of fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) strips or sheets has become a popular strengthening method for reinforced concrete structures over the last two decades. For most such strengthened concrete beams and slabs, the failure is at or near the FRP-concrete interface due to FRP debonding. The objective of this thesis is to develop a deeper understanding of the debonding behaviour of the FRP-concrete interface through mesoscale finite element simulation. Central to the investigation is the use of the concrete damaged plasticity (CDP) model for modelling the concrete. The FRP is treated as an elastic material. The numerical simulation is focused on the single shear test of FRP-concrete bonded joints. This problem is known to be highly nonlinear and has many difficulties in achieving a converged solution using the standard static loading procedures. A dynamic loading procedure is applied in this research and various parameters such as time step, loading rate etc. are investigated. In particular, the effect of the damping ratio is investigated in depth and an appropriate selection is recommended for solving such problems. It has been identified that the concrete damage model can have a significant effect on the numerical predictions in the present problem. Various concrete empirical damage models are assessed using cyclic test data and simulation of the single shear test of the FRP-concrete bonded joint and it is proposed that the Birtel and Mark’s (2006) model is the most appropriate one for use in the present problem. Subsequently, the effects of other aspects of the concrete behaviour on the FRP-concrete bond behaviour are investigated. These include the tensile fracture energy, compression strain energy and different concrete compression stress-strain models. These leads to the conclusion that the CEBFIP1990 model is the most appropriate one for the problem. An important issue for recognition is that the actual behaviour of the FRP-concrete bonded joints is three dimensional (3D), but most numerical simulations have treated the problem as two dimensional (2D) which has a number of imitations. True 3D simulation is however very expensive computationally and impractical. This study proposes a simple procedure for modelling the joint in 2D with the 3D behaviour properly considered. Numerical results show that the proposed method can successfully overcome the limitations of the traditional 2D simulation method. The above established FE model is then applied to simulate a large number of test specimens. The bond stress-slip relationship is extracted from the mesoscale FE simulation results. An alternative model is proposed based on these results which is shown to be advantageous compared with existing models. This new model provides the basis for further investigation of debonding failures in FRP strengthened concrete structures in the future.

Coastal regions are very important because they provide a lot of resources and benefits for all the humankind. Coastal defense structures protect coastal regions from wave attacks. However, the cost of construction such coastal defense structures are very high and need big investments. Hence, to reach the optimum design and minimize the risk of failure has vital importance during the design stage of these structures. Model studies are the most effective tool in optimizing the design of these structures. Rubble mound coastal defense structures were constructed with assembly of different sizes of armor stones and front slopes. Rubble mound coastal defense structures were designed by Van der Meer

The interdependencies that exist within and between infrastructures can cause unexpected system properties to emerge when their components fail due to large disruptions. As witnessed following emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina, the complexities of these interdependencies make it very difficult to effectively recover infrastructure because of the challenges they create in prioritizing the most critical components for repair. The Joint Infrastructure Interdependencies Research Program was initiated by Public Safety Canada (PSC) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) in 2005 to research methods for remedying this problem. As a part of this research, the University of British Columbia (UBC) is developing an infrastructure interdependency simulator, named I2Sim, to simulate disasters and develop strategies for dealing with emergencies. Part of this development is to construct a model of the UBC electrical distribution system and interface it with I2Sim. In this research, a general methodology for such a model is presented, which employs an off-the-shelf powerflow modeling tool. In addition, a model of the UBC information technology infrastructure is developed to provide a second infrastructure model to demonstrate the electrical model's usefulness in multi-infrastructure disaster recovery simulations. Simulations with these models have shown that the recovery of this two-infrastructure system can be carried out more effectively following an earthquake if both infrastructures are considered together in the repair approach, rather than individually. This difference was on the order of thirty percent. To extend this research from electrical distribution systems to electrical bulk systems, an interdependency model of the British Columbia Transmission Corporation bulk power network and its communications system was also developed, along with a post-blackout restoration procedure. Using these, simulations of a post-blackout recovery were carried out to study the level of risk that communications outages may pose to the electrical network's recovery. These simulations revealed a correlation between restoration time and the number of communication points lost. This research also demonstrates there is value in combining the results of such simulations with risk evaluation tools. Together these results provided a clearer indication of where vulnerabilities exist.

The interdependencies that exist within and between infrastructures can cause unexpected system properties to emerge when their components fail due to large disruptions. As witnessed following emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina, the complexities of these interdependencies make it very difficult to effectively recover infrastructure because of the challenges they create in prioritizing the most critical components for repair. The Joint Infrastructure Interdependencies Research Program was initiated by Public Safety Canada (PSC) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) in 2005 to research methods for remedying this problem. As a part of this research, the University of British Columbia (UBC) is developing an infrastructure interdependency simulator, named I2Sim, to simulate disasters and develop strategies for dealing with emergencies. Part of this development is to construct a model of the UBC electrical distribution system and interface it with I2Sim. In this research, a general methodology for such a model is presented, which employs an off-the-shelf powerflow modeling tool. In addition, a model of the UBC information technology infrastructure is developed to provide a second infrastructure model to demonstrate the electrical model's usefulness in multi-infrastructure disaster recovery simulations. Simulations with these models have shown that the recovery of this two-infrastructure system can be carried out more effectively following an earthquake if both infrastructures are considered together in the repair approach, rather than individually. This difference was on the order of thirty percent. To extend this research from electrical distribution systems to electrical bulk systems, an interdependency model of the British Columbia Transmission Corporation bulk power network and its communications system was also developed, along with a post-blackout restoration procedure. Using these, simulations of a post-blackout recovery were carried out to study the level of risk that communications outages may pose to the electrical network's recovery. These simulations revealed a correlation between restoration time and the number of communication points lost. This research also demonstrates there is value in combining the results of such simulations with risk evaluation tools. Together these results provided a clearer indication of where vulnerabilities exist.

Dans le cadre de cette étude, l’influence de la pré-déformation sur l’anisotropie du comportement plastique et sur la ténacité d’un acier API X100 pour pipeline a été abordée. Une étude expérimentale approfondie de la microstructure, des propriétés mécaniques et de l’endommagement du matériaux a été mise en oeuvre. Un modèle phénoménologique anisotrope combinant les écrouissagesisotrope et cinématique a été développé dans l’objectif de rendre compte du comportement ductile de cet acier à haute résistance. De plus, un modèle d’endommagement anisotrope a été établi pour représenter l’effet de pré-déformation sur la ductilité et la ténacité de cet acier. L’application des modèles à la flexion sous contrainte illustre, par exemple, l’effet négatif de la pré-déformation sur la charge limite (Moment de flexion maximum) supportée avant flambement du pipe. / In this thesis the influence of prestrain on anisotropic ductility and fracture toughness has been evaluated for API grade X100 line pipe steel. A omprehensive experimental investigation of microstructure, mechanical properties and fracture mechanisms has been carried out. A phenomenological model combining isotropic and kinematic hardening with anisotropic yield function has been developed, in order to represent anisotropic hardening behavior of the high strength steel. Additionally, a damage model incorporating anisotropic damage has been established for representation of prestrain effect on ductility and toughness of the X100 steel. The developed models could predict the bending capacity and the ductile fracture toughness of the cold-formed line pipes.