Yes / This is a study of the modelling and prediction of strain recovery in a polylactide. Strain recovery near the glass transition temperature is the underlying mechanism for the shape memory in an amorphous polymer. The investigation is aimed at modelling such shape memory behaviour. A PLA-based copolymer is subjected to stress–strain, stress relaxation and strain recovery experiments at large strain at 60 C just below its glass transition temperature. The material is 13% crystalline. Using published data on the mechanical properties of the crystals, finite element modelling was used to determine the effect of the crystal phase on the overall mechanical behaviour of the material, which was found to be significant. The finite element models were also used to relate the stress–strain results to the yield stress of the amorphous phase. This yield stress was found to possess strain rate dependence consistent with an Eyring process. Stress relaxation experiments were also interpreted in terms of the Eyring process, and a two-process Eyring-based model was defined that was capable of modelling strain recovery behaviour. This was essentially a model of the amorphous phase. It was shown to be capable of useful predictions of strain recovery. / Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, grant number EP/L020572/1

Yes / This is a study of the modelling and prediction of strain recovery in a polylactide. Strain recovery near the glass transition temperature is the underlying mechanism for the shape memory in an amorphous polymer. The investigation is aimed at modelling such shape memory behaviour. A PLA-based copolymer is subjected to stress-strain, stress relaxation and strain recovery experiments at large strain at 60 °C just below its glass transition temperature. The material is 13% crystalline. Using published data on the mechanical properties of the crystals, finite element modelling was used to determine the effect of the crystal phase on the overall mechanical behaviour of the material, which was found to be significant. The finite element models were also used to relate the stress-strain results to the yield stress of the amorphous phase. This yield stress was found to possess strain rate dependence consistent with an Eyring process. Stress relaxation experiments were also interpreted in terms of the Eyring process, and a two-process Eyring-based model was defined that was capable of modelling strain recovery behaviour. This was essentially a model of the amorphous phase. It was shown to be capable of useful predictions of strain recovery. / Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, grant number EP/L020572/1. / . Not submitted within 3 months from acceptance or publication but is a Gold paper.

No / The finite element simulation of a selection of two- and three-dimensional flow problems is presented, based upon the use of four different constitutive models for polymer melts (Oldroyd-B, Rolie-Poly, Pom-Pom and XPP). The mathematical and computational models are first introduced, before their application to a range of visco-elastic flows is described. Results demonstrate that the finite element models used here are able to re-produce predictions made by other published numerical simulations and, significantly, by carefully conducted physical experiments using a commercial-grade polystyrene melt in a three-dimensional contraction geometry. The paper also presents a systematic comparison and evaluation of the differences between two- and three-dimensional simulations of two different flow regimes: flow of an Oldroyd-B fluid around a cylinder and flow of a Rolie-Poly fluid into the contraction geometry. This comparison allows new observations to be made concerning the relatively poor quality of two-dimensional simulations for flows in even quite deep channels.

Crystallographic texture and its evolution are known to be major sources of anisotropy in polycrystalline metals. Highly simplified phenomenological models cannot usually provide reliable predictions of the materials anisotropy under complex deformation paths, and lack the fidelity needed to optimize the microstructure and mechanical properties during the production process. On the other hand, physics-based models such as crystal plasticity theories have demonstrated remarkable success in predicting the anisotropic mechanical response in polycrystalline metals and the evolution of underlying texture in finite plastic deformation. However, the integration of crystal plasticity models with finite element (FE) simulations tools (called CPFEM) is extremely computationally expensive, and has not been adopted broadly by the advanced materials development community. The current dissertation has mainly focused on addressing the challenges associated with integrating the recently developed spectral database approach with a commercial FE tool to permit computationally efficient simulations of heterogeneous deformations using crystal plasticity theories. More specifically, the spectral database approach to crystal plasticity solutions was successfully integrated with the implicit version of the FE package ABAQUS through a user materials subroutine, UMAT, to conduct more efficient CPFEM simulations on both fcc and bcc polycrystalline materials. It is observed that implementing the crystal plasticity spectral database in a FE code produced excellent predictions similar to the classical CPFEM, but at a significantly faster computational speed. Furthermore, an important application of the CPFEM for the extraction of crystal level plasticity parameters in multiphase materials has been demonstrated in this dissertation. More specifically, CPFEM along with a recently developed data analysis approach for spherical nanoindentation and Orientation Imaging Microscopy (OIM) have been used to extract the critical resolved shear stress of the ferrite phase in dual phase steels. This new methodology offers a novel efficient tool for the extraction of crystal level hardening parameters in any single or multiphase materials.

This thesis presents a nontraditional treatment for uncertainties in the material, geometry, and load parameters in linear static finite element analysis (FEA) for mechanics problems. Uncertainties are introduced as bounded possible values (intervals). FEA with interval parameters (interval FEA, IFEA) calculates the bounds on the system response based on the ranges of the system parameters. The obtained results should be accurate and efficiently computed. Toward this end, a rigorous interval FEA is developed and implemented. In this study, interval arithmetic is used in the formulation to guarantee an enclosure for the response range. The main difficulty associated with interval computation is the dependence problem, which results in severe overestimation of the system response ranges. Particular attention in the development of the present method is given to control the dependence problem for sharp results. The developed method is based on an Element-By-Element (EBE) technique. By using the EBE technique, the interval parameters can be handled more efficiently to control the dependence problem. The penalty method and Lagrange multiplier method are used to impose the necessary constraints for compatibility and equilibrium. The resulting structure equations are a system of parametric linear interval equations. The standard fixed point iteration is modified, enhanced, and used to solve the interval equations accurately and efficiently. The newly developed dependence control algorithm ensures the convergence of the fixed point iteration even for problems with relatively large uncertainties. Further, special algorithms have been developed to calculate sharp results for stress and element nodal force. The present method is generally applicable to linear static interval FEA, regardless of element type. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the capabilities of the developed method. It is illustrated that the present method yields rigorous and accurate results which are guaranteed to enclose the true response ranges in all the problems considered, including those with a large number of interval variables (e.g., more than 250). The scalability of the present method is also illustrated. In addition to its accuracy, rigorousness and scalability, the efficiency of the present method is also significantly superior to conventional methods such as the combinatorial, the sensitivity analysis, and the Monte Carlo sampling method.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

In the transportation sector, crash structures are often used to protect their inhabitants inthe event of a collision. These crash structures frequently utilize thin-walled tubes as energyabsorbers. The process of developing thin-walled tubes is iterative based and requires mul-tiple simulations, making it resource intensive. This thesis researches how thin-walled tubesare developed today, what kind of challenges exist in the development process and whattools and methods are used to shorten the development lead times. Later a new methodfor assessing TWBs crashworthiness before a simulation is investigated. In this method43 cross-section geometries from thin-walled tubes used in automobiles are parameterized.These tubes are later subjected to a dynamic crash simulation along their longitudinal axis.Results from these simulations are correlated to their respective parameters in order to findmeaningful relation between the parameters and results. It was found that the circumferenceof a cross-section correlates with its crashworthiness. With this finding, the developmentlead times of thin-walled tubes could be shortened by reducing the amount of required FEMsimulations.

This thesis focuses on the development and convergence study of finite element methods for eigenvalue analysis of arbitrarily shaped domains with multi-material and material-void interfaces. Such configurations can be found in problems with evolving discontinuities and interfaces as in fluid-structure interaction or topology optimization problems. The differential equations considered in this thesis include the elliptic operator, Timoshenko beam and Mindlin plate. The compatibility conditions at the interface are weakly imposed using either Nitsche's method or Lagrange multipliers. The variational statements are derived for each case. The analysis results are benchmarked using Galerkin finite element discretization with bodyitted grids. Nitsche's method shows a direct dependence on a penalty term and for Lagrange multipliers method, additional degrees of freedom are added to the solution vector. The convergence rate of the discretized forms is computationally determined and is shown to be optimal for both Timoshenko beams and Mindlin plates.

No description available.

Este trabalho trata da combinação entre a formulação híbrida-mista de tensão (FHMT) (Freitas et al. (1996)), para a elasticidade plana, com o método dos elementos finitos generalizados (MEFG), Duarte et al. (2000). O MEFG se caracteriza como uma forma não-convencional do método dos elementos finitos (MEF) que resulta da incorporação a este de conceitos e técnicas dos métodos sem malha, como o enriquecimento nodal proposto do método das nuvens “hp". Como na FHMT são aproximados dois campos no domínio (tensão e deslocamento) e um no contorno (deslocamento), diferentes possibilidades de enriquecimento nodal são exploradas. Para a discretização do modelo híbrido-misto empregam-se elementos finitos quadrilaterais com funções de forma bilineares para o domínio e elementos lineares para o contorno. Essas funções são enriquecidas por funções polinomiais, trigonométricas, polinômios que proporcionam distribuição de tensões auto-equilibradas ou mesmo funções especiais relacionadas às soluções dos problemas de fratura. Uma extensão do teste numérico abordado em Zienkiewicz et al. (1986) é proposta como investigação inicial das condições necessárias para garantia de estabilidade da resposta numérica. O estudo da estabilidade é completado com a análise da condição de Babuška-Brezzi (inf-sup). Esta condição é aplicada nos elementos finitos quadrilaterais híbridos-mistos enriquecidos por meio de um teste numérico, denominado de inf-sup teste, desenvolvido com base no trabalho de Chapelle e Bathe (1993). Exemplos numéricos revelam que a FHMT é uma interessante alternativa para obtenção de boas estimativas para os campos de tensões e deslocamentos, usando-se enriquecimento sobre alguns nós de malhas pouco refinadas / This work presents a combination of hybrid-mixed stress model formulation (HMSMF) (Freitas et al. (1996)), to treat plane elasticity problems, with generalized finite element method (GFEM), (Duarte et al. (2000)). GFEM is characterized as a nonconventional formulation of the finite element method (FEM). GFEM is the result of the incorporation of concepts and techniques from meshless methods. One example of these techniques is the nodal enrichment that was formulated in the “hp" clouds method. Since two fields in domain (stress and displacement) and one in boundary (displacement) are approximated in the HMSMF, different possibilities of nodal enrichment are tested. For the discretization of the hybrid-mixed model quadrilateral finite elements with bilinear shape functions for the domain and linear elements for the boundary were employed. These functions are enriched with polynomial functions, trigonometric functions, polynomials that generate self-equilibrated stress distribution, or, even special functions connected with solutions of fracture problems. An extension of the numerical test cited in Zienkiewicz et al. (1986) is proposed as initial investigation of necessary conditions to assure the stability of the numerical answer. The stability study is completed with the analysis of the Babuška-Brezzi (inf-sup) condition. This last condition is applied to hybrid-mixed enrichment quadrilaterals finite elements by means of a numerical test, denominated inf-sup test, which was developed based on paper of Chapelle and Bathe (1993). Numerical examples reveal that HMSMF is an interesting alternative to obtain good estimates of the stress and displacement fields, using enrichment over some nodes of poor meshes