This thesis includes the modification and optimization to an electric field mill based on micromachining technology. The sensor was originally designed to overcome the disadvantages of the conventional macroscopic field mill. Although it achieved all these listed above with a minimum detectable field strength at 42 V/m, some drawbacks are yet to be settled. In order to overcome these drawbacks, modifications are studied and put forward. Metal coating of the sensor surface could lead to a good electrical grounding that addresses the charging problem. Non-resonant working design was established with a shutter displacement around 5μm. Finite element simulations were set up to look into the optimizations of the structure parameters of the sensor, focusing on the shutter and electrodes. Moreover, the fabrication process was also studied with attempts of each step carried out in the NSFL of University of Manitoba.

This thesis includes the modification and optimization to an electric field mill based on micromachining technology. The sensor was originally designed to overcome the disadvantages of the conventional macroscopic field mill. Although it achieved all these listed above with a minimum detectable field strength at 42 V/m, some drawbacks are yet to be settled. In order to overcome these drawbacks, modifications are studied and put forward. Metal coating of the sensor surface could lead to a good electrical grounding that addresses the charging problem. Non-resonant working design was established with a shutter displacement around 5μm. Finite element simulations were set up to look into the optimizations of the structure parameters of the sensor, focusing on the shutter and electrodes. Moreover, the fabrication process was also studied with attempts of each step carried out in the NSFL of University of Manitoba.

Interest in superelastic (and shape memory) materials continues to rise, and there is a strong incentive to develop techniques for monitoring of their superelastic characteristics. This is conventionally done via uniaxial testing, but there are many advantages to having a capability for obtaining these characteristics (in the form of parameter values in a constitutive law) via indentation testing. Specimens can then be small, require minimal preparation and be obtainable from components in service. Interrogation of small volumes also allows mapping of properties over a surface. On the other hand, the tested volume must be large enough for its response to be representative of behaviour. Precisely the same arguments apply to more "mainstream" mechanical properties, such as yielding and work hardening characteristics. Indeed, there has been considerable progress in that area recently, using FEM simulation to predict indentation outcomes, evaluating the "goodness of fit" for particular sets of parameter values and converging on a best-fit combination. A similar approach can be used to obtain superelastic parameters, but little work has been done hitherto on sensitivities, uniqueness characteristics or optimal methodologies and the procedures are complicated by limitations to the constitutive laws in current use. The current work presents a comprehensive examination of the issues involved, using experimental (uniaxial and indentation) data for a NiTi Shape Memory Alloy. It was found that it is possible to obtain the superelastic parameter values using a single indenter shape (spherical). Information is also presented on sensitivities and the probable reliability of such parameters obtained in this way for an unknown material.

The object of this study is to explore the deformation pattern of axisymmetric clad materials composed of the single-core and the sleeve during hydrostatic extrusion, and discuss the relations between processing condition factors and extrusion pressure in hydrostatic extrusion of axisymmetric clad materials. In the FEM simulation of composite materials during hydrostatic extrusion, this paper describes a technique that can be used for predicting whether core bursting of composite materials occurs or not. The effect of several extrusion parameters on the damage value of the core is examined: extrusion ratio(R), die semicone angle(£\¢X), bonding friction factor(mi), material strength ratio. By performing FEM simulations and discussing the effect of parameters on distribution of damage value obtained, it is possible to establish a data base for prevention of fracture of the core. The paper has designed and constructed an experimental receiver pressure of hydrostatic apparatus with a maximum working pressure of 7000 kgf/cm2. In experiment, extrusion of Cu-Al composite rods with different of core radius ratio was carried out. It has been found that uniform deformation always occurs under the combination of hard sleeve and soft core and the core layer usually fails due to the tension under the combination of hard core and soft sleeve.

This thesis is a summary of my research works at the MSM department of the University of Liège since 1989. These research works are devoted to the numerical simulation of the three-dimensional sheet metal forming processes by the finite element method. Several research areas, including the finite element modelling, the time-integration technique of material constitutive laws and the 3D contact treatments are covered. The theoretical methodologies, the numerical implementation and industrial applications will be presented. The thesis begins with a brief overview made in chapter 1. In chapter 2, a 8-node mixed brick element based on the HU-WASHIZU variational principle is developed (JET3D element). Special attention is paid to avoid hourglass modes as well as locking phenomena, including "shear locking" and "volumetric locking" in nonlinear analysis. Numerical examples are used at the end of this chapter to assess the performance and applicability of this element. In chapter 3, a 3D four-node shallow element, which was originally developed by Ph. JETTEUR and then has been improved by him and his co-workers, is recalled (COQJ4 element). Special care is taken to the finite rotation problems and a new formulation for the finite rotation is developed. An example is used at the end of the chapter to show the performance of the proposed formulation for the finite rotation problems. A special contact element is developed for the shell element in chapter 4. In this chapter, some basics aspects of numerical tretments of contact problem are discussed and some attentions are paid to the contact searching algorithms, which has proved to be very important in 3D cases. In chapter 5, the appropriate constitutive equations are examined together with the techniques of time-integration and the evaluation of the tangent stiffness matrix. Much attention is paid to the implicit integration methods, which have proved to be very efficient for large increments of deformation. Finally, in chapter 6, two benchmark tests are used as validation of the code. Special attention is paid to the possibility of using dynamic explicit procedure in the numerical simulation of sheet metal forming, although it is often characterised as a quasi-static process. All the developments made in the thesis have been implemented into the finite element code LAGAMINE developed since 1982 at the MSM department of the University of Liège.

Considering the hypothetical core melt down scenario for a light water reactor (LWR) a possible failure mode of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and its failure time has to be investigated for a determination of the loadings on the containment. Numerous experiments have been performed accompanied with material properties evaluation, theoretical, and numerical work /REM 1993/, /THF 1997/, /CHU 1999/. For pre- and post-test calculations of Lower Head Failure experiments like OLHF or FOREVER it is necessary to model creep and plasticity processes. Therefore a Fi-nite Element Model is developed at the FZR using a numerical approach which avoids the use of a single creep law employing constants derived from the data for a limited stress and temperature range. Instead of this a numerical creep data base (CDB) is developed where the creep strain rate is evaluated in dependence on the current total strain, temperature and equivalent stress. A main task for this approach is the generation and validation of the CDB. Additionally the implementation of all relevant temperature dependent material properties has been performed. For an evaluation of the failure times a damage model according to an approach of Lemaitre is applied. The validation of the numerical model is performed by the simulation of and com-parison with experiments. This is done in 3 levels: starting with the simulation of sin-gle uniaxial creep tests, which is considered as a 1D-problem. In the next level so called "tube-failure-experiments" are modeled: the RUPTHER-14 and the "MPA-Meppen"-experiment. These experiments are considered as 2D-problems. Finally the numerical model is applied to scaled 3D-experiments, where the lower head of a PWR is represented in its hemispherical shape, like in the FOREVER-experiments. This report deals with the 1D- and 2D-simulations. An interesting question to be solved in this frame is the comparability of the French 16MND5 and the German 20MnMoNi55 RPV-steels, which are chemically nearly identical. Since these 2 steels show a similar behavior, it should be allowed on a lim-ited scale to transfer experimental and numerical data from one to the other.

Considering the hypothetical core melt down scenario for a light water reactor (LWR) a possible failure mode of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and its failure time has to be investigated for a determination of the loadings on the containment. Numerous experiments have been performed accompanied with material properties evaluation, theoretical, and numerical work /REM 1993/, /THF 1997/, /CHU 1999/. For pre- and post-test calculations of Lower Head Failure experiments like OLHF or FOREVER it is necessary to model creep and plasticity processes. Therefore a Fi-nite Element Model is developed at the FZR using a numerical approach which avoids the use of a single creep law employing constants derived from the data for a limited stress and temperature range. Instead of this a numerical creep data base (CDB) is developed where the creep strain rate is evaluated in dependence on the current total strain, temperature and equivalent stress. A main task for this approach is the generation and validation of the CDB. Additionally the implementation of all relevant temperature dependent material properties has been performed. For an evaluation of the failure times a damage model according to an approach of Lemaitre is applied. The validation of the numerical model is performed by the simulation of and com-parison with experiments. This is done in 3 levels: starting with the simulation of sin-gle uniaxial creep tests, which is considered as a 1D-problem. In the next level so called "tube-failure-experiments" are modeled: the RUPTHER-14 and the "MPA-Meppen"-experiment. These experiments are considered as 2D-problems. Finally the numerical model is applied to scaled 3D-experiments, where the lower head of a PWR is represented in its hemispherical shape, like in the FOREVER-experiments. This report deals with the 1D- and 2D-simulations. An interesting question to be solved in this frame is the comparability of the French 16MND5 and the German 20MnMoNi55 RPV-steels, which are chemically nearly identical. Since these 2 steels show a similar behavior, it should be allowed on a lim-ited scale to transfer experimental and numerical data from one to the other.

No description available.

Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, das Verhalten polyelektrolytischer Gele und Hydrogelschichtsysteme auf Basis der Kontinuumsmechanik zu modellieren. Die Untersuchung des Materialverhaltens gegenüber externer Stimulation erfolgt anhand numerischer Simulationen, wodurch Einblicke in den komplexen Quellprozess und darin auftretende Phänomene gewährt werden. Die vorgenommene Modellierung und Simulation gestattet dabei eine Optimierung der Systemeigenschaften für den Anwendungsfall. Anwendungsfehler und die Anzahl nötiger Versionen zur Systemgestaltung können hierdurch effektiv verringert werden. Hydrogele stellen wichtige Vertreter aus der Klasse intelligenter Materialien dar, d.h. sie sind in der Lage auf Umwelteinflüsse durch eine reversible Änderung ihrer Materialeigenschaften zu reagieren. Sie bestehen aus einer mit Wasser gefüllten Polymermatrix, in welcher ionische Ladungsträger vorliegen. Dabei sind mobile Ladungsträger im Wasser enthalten. Die Materialeigenschaften von Hydrogelen beruhen auf ihrer chemischen Zusammensetzung und können jeweils spezifisch für ihren Anwendungsfall angepasst werden. So reagieren polyelektrolytische Hydrogele mit einem reversiblen Quell- bzw. Schrumpfungsprozess auf externe elektrische Felder und die Änderung der chemischen Zusammensetzung im umgebenden Lösungsmittelbad. Die reversible Volumenänderung gegenüber externer Stimuli eröffnet Hydrogelen ein breites Anwendungsfeld. Insbesondere sind sie für die Entwicklung neuer Messsysteme relevant, da über klassische Messgrößen hinaus auch sehr spezifische chemische Größen untersucht werden können. Auch eignen sich Hydrogele als aktive Komponenten mikrofluidischer Ventile, welche auf die Zusammensetzung des Fluides reagieren. Da sie keine externe Ansteuerung bzw. Energieversorgung benötigen, sind sie leichter miniaturisierbar als klassische Ventile. Aufgrund ihrer hohen Leistungsdichte sind Hydrogele prinzipiell auch für die Entwicklung leichter und energieeffizienter Aktoren geeignet. Hierbei stellt die von der Größe des Hydrogels abhängige Reaktionszeit bislang jedoch eine Hürde dar, wodurch ihr Einsatz in kleinskaligen Anwendungen wahrscheinlicher ist. Die Kombination mehrerer Schichten aus Hydrogelen ermöglicht hierbei die Anwendung als Biegeaktoren bzw. Messsysteme mit erhöhter Genauigkeit. Da ein fundiertes Wissen über die komplexen Vorgänge im Hydrogel eine große Rolle bei der Weiterentwicklung neuartiger Anwendungen spielt, wird in dieser Arbeit das komplexe Materialverhalten numerisch abgebildet. Hierbei wird insbesondere Wert auf die Interaktion der chemischen, elektrischen sowie der mechanischen Domäne gelegt. Dabei wird a priori angenommen, dass die komplizierte Mikrostruktur des porösen Hydrogels als Kontinuum darstellbar ist und die relevanten Phänomene über Feldgleichungen abgebildet werden können. Es wird eine Einführung über polyelektrolytische Hydrogele und Hydrogelschichtsysteme gegeben, wobei insbesondere auf deren mikrostrukturellen Aufbau und daraus ableitbare Einsatzgebiete eingegangen wird. Mittels eines Überblicks über Modellierungsansätze in der publizierten Literatur werden die hier verwendeten Modellierungsansätze motiviert und in das Umfeld bestehender Vorarbeiten eingeordnet. Nach der Einführung notwendiger Grundlagen der physikalischen Chemie wird die Modellbildung mit der gewählten Kinematik, den Bilanzgleichungen und den Materialgleichungen zur Beschreibung von Hydrogelen und Hydrogelschichtsystemen vorgestellt. Die Bilanzgleichungen umfassen hierbei die Massenerhaltung des Polymers und der ionischen Spezies, die Impuls- und Drehimpulsbilanz sowie die Maxwell-Gleichungen. Nach der Beschreibung geeigneter Materialgleichungen folgt eine Zusammenstellung des gekoppelten chemo-elektro-mechanischen Feldproblems. Zur Lösung des gekoppelten Feldproblems wird die Finite-Elemente-Methode (FEM) genutzt. Die Validierung des erstellten Modells wird anhand eines Quellexperiments von Frijns et al. durchgeführt. Durch den Vergleich mit einem auf der Theorie Poröser Medien (TPM) basierenden Modells kann das hier verwendete Modell abgeglichen werden, wobei eine gute Übereinstimmung zwischen den Ergebnissen beider Modelle herrscht. Basierend auf den Vorarbeiten von Wallmersperger et al. und Attaran et al. wurde das hier genutzte Modell um einen zeitlichen Term in der Beschreibung der Referenzkonzentration erweitert. Hieraus resultiert eine qualitative Verbesserung in der Darstellung des zeitlichen Quellverlaufes bei chemischer Stimulation. In Anlehnung an vorhergehende Arbeiten auf dem Gebiet erfolgt die Kopplung von der mechanischen Domäne zur chemischen Domäne über eine vom Verzerrungszustand abhängige Konzentration gebundener Ladungsträger. Hier durchgeführte Untersuchungen zeigen, dass diese Rückkopplung auch unter der Annahme kleiner Deformationen Relevanz besitzt und nicht vernachlässigt werden sollte. Anders als z.B. mit der TPM oder mit dem Flory-Rehner Modell ist es unter Verwendung des hier entwickelten Modells möglich, Grenzschichtphänomene zwischen Gel und Lösungsmittelbad aufzulösen. Durch die Untersuchung der Grenzschicht zeigt sich eine annähernd lineare Abhängigkeit der Grenzschichtdicke von der relativen Permittivität des Hydrogels. Auch lässt sich ein Zusammenhang zwischen der Konzentration gebundener Ladungsträger und der Grenzschichtdicke identifizieren. Um das Potential der gewählten Methode zu demonstrieren, wird anhand des Beispiels eines einfachen zweischichtigen Hydrogel-Biegebalkens eine Untersuchung über die inneren Vorgänge im Schichtsystem durchgeführt. Die Untersuchung gewährt hierbei Einblicke z.B. in den zeitlichen Verlauf des elektrischen Potentials, der Konzentration mobiler Ionen sowie der resultierenden Verzerrungen. In einem abschließenden numerischen Beispiel wird die Kontaktkraft sowie die auftretenden mechanischen Spannungen in einem Greifersystem, bestehend aus zwei hydrogelbasierten Biegeaktoren, ausgewertet. / Aim of this work is to model the behavior of polyelectrolyte gels and hydrogel-layer systems based on continuum mechanics. For this, numerical simulations are conducted to gain an insight into the complex phenomena occurring during the swelling process of hydrogels. The process of modeling and simulation is important to enhance the understanding of these systems and to improve the properties of hydrogel-based applications. Also, errors resulting from a lack of knowledge as well as from the number of required experimental works can be reduced significantly. Hydrogels belong to the class of smart materials. Therefore, they show a response to changes in their environment by a reversible change of material properties. Polyelectrolyte hydrogels consist of a polymer network with fixed ionic groups. Within the void of the polymer matrix, interstitial water containing mobile ions is present. The properties of hydrogels depend on their chemical composition and can be adjusted for the specified application. They exhibit a reversible swelling or deswelling process when subjected to electric fields or changes of the chemical composition of the surrounding solution bath. This reversible volume change opens a wide field of potential applications. The most promising field of application seems to be in the realms of measurement systems, since hydrogels can be used for the investigation of very specific chemical or biochemical measures. In addition, hydrogels can be used as active components in microfluidic devices, which open and close depending on the chemical composition of the bypassing fluid. Without a need for external control and energy supply, they are suitable for miniaturisation. As a consequence of their high energy density, hydrogels are also relevant candidates for the development of lightweight and energy efficient actuator systems. Due to their size-dependent reaction time, their use in small-scale actuatoric devices is the most promising in this field. the combination of multiple hydrogel layers can be used to increase the sensitivity of hydrogel-based measurement devices. Hydrogel-layer systems can also be used for actuatoric devices, such as gripper devices or microfluidic valves. In the presented model, the interaction between the electrical, chemical and the mechanical fields are respected. It is assumed, that the complex microstructure of hydrogels may be treated as a continuum and that the relevant phenomena can be described using field equations. A brief introduction on polyelectrolyte gels and hydrogel-layer systems is given. Here, their microstructure is described and relevant applications are summarized. By giving a brief literature review, the modeling approaches of this thesis are motivated and arranged within the field of existing models. After an introduction of relevant basics of physical chemistry, the model formulation is presented. Here, the chosen kinematics as well as the used balance equations and material laws are given. They include the conservation of mass for the polymer and the ionic species, the conservation of linear momentum and angular momentum as well as the Maxwell equations. After presenting suitable material laws, the field equations of the fully coupled chemo-electro-mechanical field problem are summarized. The numerical solution of the field problem is obtained by applying the Finite-Element-Method (FEM). The validation of the presented model is conducted by a comparison with experimental results of Frijns et al. After this, the used model is compared with the Theory of Porous Media (TPM), which results in a good agreement of both approaches. Since the used model represents an extension of the preliminary work of Wallmersperger et al. and Attaran et al., differences in the models are discussed. By extending the previous models by an additional temporal term in the description of the reference concentration, a qualitative improvement of the prediction of the time behavior under chemical stimulation is achieved. As done in preliminary works, the mechanical and the chemical domains are coupled by a strain dependent concentration of fixed charges. It can be shown, that this backcoupling is of significance also for small deformations. In contrast to the TPM and the Flory-Rehner model, phenomena occurring in the interface layer between adjacent domains can be investigated using the presented model. An almost linear dependence between the relative permittivity of the hydrogel and the thickness of the boundary layer is observed. It also depends on the concentration of fixed charges in the polymer network. To demonstrate the potential of the applied method, a numerical investigation of a two-layered hydrogel bending actuator is investigated. The results give an insight for example into the time-dependent distribution of the electric potential, the concentration of mobile ions as well as the resulting strains. In another numerical example, the contact force in a gripper consisting of two hydrogel-based bending actuators is evaluated.

Drückwalzen als inkrementelles Umformverfahren ist aufgrund seiner Verfahrenscharakteristik mit sehr hohen Rechenzeiten bei der Finite-Elemente-Methode (FEM) verbunden. Die Modelle ModIni und FloSim sind zwei analytisch-elementare Ansätze, um dieser Prämisse entgegenzuwirken. Das für ModIni entwickelte Geometriemodell wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit weiterentwickelt, so dass eine werkstoffunabhängige Berechnung der Staugeometrie ermöglicht wird und ein deutlich größeres Anwendungsspektrum der Methode bereitsteht. Die Simulationsmethode FloSim basiert auf dem oberen Schrankenverfahren und ermöglicht somit eine Berechnung von Zylinderdrückwalzprozessen innerhalb weniger Minuten. Für die Optimierung der Methode FloSim wurden in der vorliegenden Arbeit die analytischen Grundlagen für die Berechnung der Bauteillänge sowie der Umformzonentemperatur während des Prozesses erarbeitet. Weiterhin wurde auf Basis von numerisch realisierten Parameteranalysen ein Ansatz für die analytische Berechnung des Vergleichsumformgrades von Drückwalzprozessen entwickelt. Diese drei Ansätze, zu Bauteillänge, Temperatur und Umformgrad wurden in die Simulationssoftware FloSim integriert und führen zu einer deutlichen Genauigkeitssteigerung der Methode. / Flow Forming as incremental forming process is connected with extreme long computation times for Finite-Element-Analyses. ModIni and FloSim are two analytical/elementary models to antagonize this situation. The geometry model, which was developed for ModIni, is improved within the presented work. The improvement enables the material independent computation of the pile-up geometry and permits a wider application scope of ModIni. The simulation method FloSim is based on the upper bound method, which enables the computation of cylindrical Flow Forming processes within minutes. For the optimization of the method FloSim, the basics for the analytical computation of the workpiece length during the process and the computation of the forming zone temperature were developed within this work. Fur-thermore, an analytical approach for the computation of the equivalent plastic strain of cylindrical Flow Forming processes was developed based on numerical parameter analyses. This tree approaches for computing the workpiece length, the temperature and the equivalent plastic strain were integrated in FloSim and lead to an increased accuracy.