This thesis presents a comprehensive study on the thermal modelling aspects of laser transmission welding of thermoplastics (LTW), a technology for joining of plastic parts. In the LTW technique, a laser beam passes through the laser-transmitting part and is absorbed within a thin layer in the laser-absorbing part. The heat generated at the interface of the two parts melts a thin layer of the plastic and, with applying appropriate clamping pressure, joining occurs. Transient thermal models for the LTW process were developed and solved by the finite element method (FEM). Input to the models included temperature-dependent thermo-physical properties that were adopted from well-known sources, material suppliers, or obtained by conducting experiments. In addition, experimental and theoretical studies were conducted to estimate the optical properties of the materials such as the absorption coefficient of the laser-absorbing part and light scattering by the laser-transmitting part. Lap-joint geometry was modelled for semi crystalline (polyamide - PA6) and amorphous (polycarbonate - PC) materials. The thermal models addressed the heating and cooling stages in a laser welding process with a stationary and moving laser beam. An automated ANSYS® script and MATLAB® codes made it possible to input a three-dimensional (3D), time-varying volumetric heat-generation term to model the absorption of a moving diode-laser beam. The result was a 3D time-transient, model of the laser transmission welding process implemented in the ANSYS® FEM environment. In the thermal imaging experiments, a stationary or moving laser beam was located in the proximity of the side surface of the two parts being joined in a lap-joint configuration. The side surface was then observed by the thermal imaging camera. For the case of the stationary beam, the laser was activated for 10 s while operating at a low power setting. For the case of the moving beam, the beam was translated parallel to the surface observed by the camera. The temperature distribution of a lap joint geometry exposed to a stationary and moving diode-laser beam, obtained from 3D thermal modelling was then compared with the thermal imaging observations. The predicted temperature distribution on the surface of the laser-absorbing part observed by the thermal camera agreed within 3C with that of the experimental results. Predicted temperatures on the laser-transmitting part surface were generally higher by 15C to 20C. This was attributed to absorption coefficient being set too high in the model for this part. Thermal imaging of the soot-coated laser-transmitting part surface indicated that significantly more scattering and less absorption takes place in this part than originally assumed. For the moving laser beam, good model match with the experiments (peak temperatures predicted within 1C) was obtained for some of the process conditions modelled for PA6 parts. In addition, a novel methodology was developed to extract the scattered laser beam power distribution from the thermal imaging observations of the moving laser beam. / Thesis (Ph.D, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2008-10-08 10:39:30.952

Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by reduced bone mass and reduced bone quality. This deterioration manifests itself in osteoporotic fractures at skeletal sites containing large proportions of cancellous bone (ie. forearm, hip, spine). Given the costs associated with these fractures, improvements in our ability to model and predict the behaviour of cancellous bone would be of great financial and social benefit to society. This thesis makes contributions in three areas within the much larger goal of developing a comprehensive model for describing the mechanical behaviour of cancellous bone. Since the accuracy of model predictions can only be as good as the test data against which it is compared, the effect of experimental artifacts introduced by specimen geometry is examined for cored samples. The apparent elastic modulus of cancellous bone is found to be relatively insensitive to specimen (or gauge) length, such that it can be reduced below the recommended 2:1 aspect ratio without introducing detectable artifact. Conversely, apparent modulus is found to be much more sensitive to specimen diameter. The role of water is also examined. Dehydration at room temperature was found to increase the apparent elastic modulus by roughly 14%. This net increase results from the competing effects of an increased tissue modulus and a decreased bone volume fraction due to shrinkage. Finally, preliminary work is presented which attempts to relate micro-CT voxel intensity and locally measured nanoindentation moduli, in order to provide an experimental basis for assigning heterogeneous material properties to finite element method (FEM) models. / Thesis (Ph.D, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2009-04-24 14:28:17.772

This research demonstrates the usage of numerical acoustics to model sound and vibrational energy propagation in HVAC ducts and plenums. Noise and vibration in HVAC systems propagates along three primary paths that can be classified as airborne direct, airborne indirect and structure-borne. The airborne direct path was simulated using acoustic FEM with special boundary conditions to handle the diffuse acoustic field loading and the baffled termination. The insertion loss for a number of different plenum geometries was compared to published measurement results. Results were in good agreement both below and above the cutoff frequency. Additionally, the airborne indirect path, often termed breakout noise by the HVAC community, was assessed using Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA). This path was examined experimentally by placing a loudspeaker inside the air handler and measuring the sound power transmitted through the walls. SEA results compared favorably with the measured results in one-third octave bands even at low frequencies. Finally, the structure-borne path was considered by exciting the walls of the aforementioned air handler using an electromagnetic shaker. The panel vibration and the sound power radiated from the panels were measured. Results were compared with the SEA with good agreement provided that SEA loss factors were determined experimentally.

We will present the approaches used to investigating the power loss for the stranded core transformers. One advantage of using stranded core is to reduce power loss or enhance transformer efficiency. One difficulty in the modeling of this type of transformer is that the core is not solid (there are small gaps between core wires due to circular cross section). A two dimensional finite element method with nodal basis function for magnetostatic field was developed to study the effects of the small gaps between core wires. The magnetic flux densities are compared for the uniform (solid) cores and the stranded cores for various permeability values. The effects of different air gap dimensions in stranded core to the magnitude of magnetic flux density were also discussed. The results of the two dimensional study were applied to modify the B-H curves in a 3D simulation with an equivalent simplified uniformed core transformer model via Ansoft Maxwell 3D. This is achieved by output the magnitude of magnetic flux density at fixed points of mesh center. The total core loss of a transformer was predicted by integration of the losses of all elements.

Neue additive Fertigungsverfahren erzeugen hochkomplexe Strukturen deren strukturmechanische Eigenschaften bisher nicht vorhersagbar waren. Mit einem neuen Ansatz wird ohne Vernetzung wie sie in der FEM benötigt wird, eine Simulation des strukturmechanischen Verhaltens möglich. Erste Untersuchungen an bisher unvorstellbar komplexen Modellen zeigen eine hervorragende Performance, die gerade im Umfeld von typischen Gitterstrukturen der 3D-Druckverfahren einsetzbar sind und darüber weit hinausgehen. In diesem Vortrag wird anhand von Beispielen der hohe Wirkungsgrad der Software External aufgezeigt, der so in der FEM nicht möglich ist.

Produkte werden in ihrem Lebenszyklus verschiedenartig strukturmechanisch belastet. Die Folge ist eine Verformung aufgrund dieser Belastung und die mangelnde Formhaltigkeit. Die Frage ist, welche Toleranzen sollen die mangelnde Formhaltigkeit einschließen oder gar ausgleichen? Eine Toleranz gibt vor, in welcher Maßabweichung ein Maß gefertigt werden darf, um die Produktanforderungen zu erfüllen. Der Fertigungsprozess muss innerhalb der Toleranzangabe fertigen. Mit Creo Simulate kann eine Toleranzkette simuliert werden. In diesem Vortrag wird ein grundsätzlicher Simulationsansatz für die Toleranzanalyse innerhalb der FEM beschrieben und findet eine Ergänzung mit der Toleranzsoftware CETOL 6σ.

Les tubes métalliques de précision sont largement utilisés pour des applications biomédicales. De tels tubes sont fabriqués par étirage à froid car ce procédé garanti le meilleur aspect de surface, le plus grand contrôle des dimensions du tube et le contrôle des propriétés mécaniques. L'objet de cette étude est de modéliser le procédé d'étirage de tube sur mandrin afin d'en améliorer la compréhension et de construire un outil permettant l'optimisation du procédé et de prédire la rupture des tubes en étirage. La construction du modèle élément finis s'appuie sur la réalisation d'essais expérimentaux afin de caractériser les propriétés mécaniques des matériaux et le frottement entre le tube et les outils d'étirage (mandrin, filière). Le comportement mécanique des alliages est caractérisé par des essais de traction sur tube, des essais de traction sur des éprouvettes découpées dans différentes orientations dans un tube déplié et des essais de gonflement de tube. Pour ces derniers, une machine et un outillage de gonflement de tubes ont été développés spécifiquement. Par le biais de ces essais différents aspects ont été étudiés : la viscoplasticité, l'anisotropie plastique, l'hétérogénéité des propriétés dans l'épaisseur du tube, la thermomécanique. Les coefficients de frottements ont été identifiés par analyse inverse sur des essais d'étirage instrumentés par des cellules d'effort. Des essais d'étirage ont été spécifiquement conçus en modifiant la géométrie du mandrin afin de conduire à la rupture des tubes lors de l'étirage. L'objectif de tels essais étant d'identifier la limite de formabilité des tubes. L'approche choisie pour prédire de la rupture a été d'utiliser des critères de ruptures qui pouvaient être calibrés sur des essais de traction uniquement. Les critères ont été calculés au cours de la simulation numérique de l'étirage sur mandrin et ils ont été évalués par rapport à leur capacité à prédire les réductions de section et d'épaisseur maximales. Enfin, des méthodes analytiques de calcul d'effort d'étirage ont été développées et comparées à la modélisation éléments finis.

Ce travail de recherche présente la modélisation du comportement mécanique des matériaux granulaires cohésifs par une approche multi-échelle en combinant la méthode des éléments finis (FEM) et la méthode des éléments discrets (DEM). A l'échelle microscopique, la DEM est utilisé pour modéliser un assemblage granulaire alors qu'à l'échelle macroscopique, la solution numérique est obtenue par la FEM. Afin de faire un pont entre l'échelle micro et macroscopique, un Volume Elementaire Représentative (VER) est considéré dans lequel la contrainte suite à une déformation imposée résulte d'un calcul numérique de type DEM. Par cette manière, la loi numérique constitutive est déterminé par la modélisation de la microstructure, et par conséquent prenant en compte les natures des matériaux granulaires. Après avoir achevé à construire la loi numérique, on propose d'étudier les propriétés de cette loi incrémentale en terme des enveloppes de réponse Gudehus, et des analyses en bande de cisaillement. Cet étude nous permet d'avoir une vision générale sur cette nouvelle loi. Dans cette contribution numérique multi-échelle, en implémentant la loi numérique DEM dans un code de calcul par éléments finis, un outil numérique est obtenu et utilisé à simuler des essais menés au laboratoire. Des résultats obtenus produisant la localisation de la déformation en bandes de cisaillement seront analysés et discutés.

The workshop ¨Portierbare numerische Simulationen auf parallelen Architekturen¨ (¨Portable numerical simulations on parallel architectures¨) was organized by the Fac- ulty of Informatics/Professorship Computer Architecture at 18 April 1996 and held in the framework of the Sonderforschungsbereich (Joint Research Initiative) ¨Numerische Simulationen auf massiv parallelen Rechnern¨ (SFB 393) (¨Numerical simulations on massiv parallel computers¨) ( http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/~pester/sfb/sfb393.html ) The SFB 393 is funded by the German National Science Foundation (DFG). The purpose of the workshop was to bring together scientists using parallel computing to provide integrated discussions on portability issues, requirements and future devel- opments in implementing parallel software efficiently as well as portable on Clusters of Symmetric Multiprocessorsystems. I hope that the present paper gives the reader some helpful hints for further discussions in this field.

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