<div>Thin walled structures find wide applications in automotive industry as energy absorption devices. A great deal of research has been conducted to design thin walled structures, where the main objective is to reduce peak crushing forces and increase energy absorption capacity. With the advancement of computers and mathematics, it has been possible to develop 2D patterns which when folded turn into complex 3D structures. This technology can be used to develop patterns for getting structures with desired properties. </div><div>In this study, square origami tubes with folding pattern (Yoshimura pattern) is designed and studied extensively using numerical analysis. An accurate Finite Element Model (FEM) is developed to conduct the numerical analysis. A parametric study was conducted to study the influence of geometric parameters on the mechanical properties like peak crushing force, mean crushing force, load uniformity and maximum intrusion, when subjected to dynamic loading. </div><div>The results from this analysis are studied and various conclusions are drawn. It is found that, when the tube is folded with the pattern having specific dimension, the performance is enhanced significantly, with predictable and stable collapse. It is also found that the stiffness of the module varies with geometrical parameters. With a proper study it is possible to develop origami structures with functionally graded stiffness, the performance of which can be tuned as per requirement, hence, showing promising capabilities as an energy absorption device where progressive collapse from near to end impact end is desired.</div><div><br></div>

In this thesis an investigation of the shear stiffness and capacity of joints between pre- fabricated concrete elements regarding to different material properties is reported. Two different models of shear key joints, connected to prefabricated walls, were cre- ated in the non-linear finite element software, ATENA 3D, with the aim to estimate a realistic behaviour of the joints regarding to the external loads.

The analysis and optimum design of stiffened, shear webs in aircraft structures is addressed. The post-buckling behaviour of the webs is assessed using the interactive algorithm developed by Grisham. This method requires only linear finite element analyses, while convergence is typically achieved in as few as five iterations. The Grisham algorithm is extensively compared with empirical analysis methods previously used for aircraft structures and also with a refined, non-linear quasi-static finite element analysis. The Grisham algorithm provides for both compressive buckling in two directions as well as shear buckling, and overcomes some of the conservatism inherent in conventional methods of analysis. In addition, the method is notably less expensive than a complete non-linear finite element analysis, even though global collapse cannot be predicted. While verification of the analysis methodology is the main focus of the stud, an initial investigation into optimization is also made. In optimizing stiffened thin walled structures, the Grisham algorithm is combined with a genetic algorithm. Allowable stress constraints are accommodated using a simple penalty formulation. / Dissertation (MEng (Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / unrestricted

In the automobile industry, there is a big push for the automotive car manufacturers to base engineering decisions on the results of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) solutions, and to transform the prototyping and testing, from a costly iterative process to a final verification and validation step. The variability in components material properties and environmental conditions together with the lack of knowledge about the underlying physics of complex systems often make it impractical to make reliable predictions based on only deterministic CAE models. One such area is the CAE modelling of cast aluminium components. These cast aluminium components have gained a huge relevance in the automobile industries due to their commendable mechanical properties. The advantage of the cast aluminium alloys are being a well-established alloy system in manufacturing processes, their functional integrity and relatively low weight. However, the presence of pores and micro-voids obtained during the manufacturing process constitutes a specific material behaviour and establishes a challenge in modelling of the cast materials. Furthermore, the low ductility of the materialdemands for the advanced numerical model to predict the failure. The main focus of this master thesis work is to investigate modelling technique of a cast aluminium alloy component, a spring tower, for a drop tower test and validate the predicted behaviour with the physical test results. Volvo Car Corporation currently uses a material model provided by MATFEM for cast aluminium parts which are explored in this thesis work, to validate the material model for component level testing. The methodology used to achieve this objective was to develop a boundary condition to perform component level tests in the drop tower and to correlate these with the obtained results found by using various modelling techniques in the explicit solver LS-DYNA. Therefore, precise and realistic modelling of the drop tower is crucial because the simulation results can be influenced by major design changes. A detailed finite element model for the spring tower has been developed from the observations made during the physical testing. The refined model showed good agreement with the existing model for the spring tower and observations from physical tests.

The experimental investigations performed on the behaviour of reinforce concrete elements subjected to blast loading have revealed that the shear mechanisms and ductility play important roles in the overall response and failure mode of such structures. The main aim of this master thesis is to study the possibility of using finite element method as a tool for predicting the dynamic response of blast loaded reinforced concrete beams and evaluation of their shear strength. In this study, the commercial software, ABAQUS/Explicit has been used by implementing appropriate constitutive material models in order to consider the material nonlinearity, stiffness degradation and strain rate effects. The results of some blast loaded tested beams have been used for verification and calibration of the model. As a secondary objective, the calibrated model used to study the influence of some important factors on the shear strength of reinforced concrete beams and investigate their effects on the failure mode. The results used as a reference and compared with the calculations according to some design codes for blast resistance design. The results of the present research show that the implemented nonlinear finite element model successfully simulates the dynamic responses including displacement/reaction force time histories and induced damage patterns of blast tested beams with reasonable accuracy. The results of performed parametric study confirm that the ductility play important role in the failure behaviour of studied beams. The numerical simulations show that dynamic response of a soft element is more ductile than the stiffer one and the shear forces are thereby limited. Thus, although a soft element fails by large deformations in flexure, a stiff element may experience a brittle shear failure mode for the same load intensity. The comparison between the results of numerical analysis and design codes calculation show that the American approach in shear design of reinforced concrete elements subjected to blast loading is relatively conservative, similar to static design approach and do not consider the effect of ductility in the shear design procedure. On the contrary, the procedure that Swedish guideline implemented somehow considers the effect of ductility on the shear strength of reinforced concrete elements subjected to impulsive loads. Further research should involve the using the developed finite element model as a tool in order to theoretically study the dynamic response of blast loaded reinforced concrete elements and their failure modes. The results of numerical simulations can be used as a reference to derive simplified computational methods for practical design purposes.

This thesis covers an investigation regarding the failure in the bridge slab of Gruvvägsbron, which was the result of the full scale test that the bridge was subjected to prior to demolition. Using the non-linear finite element software ATENA 3D, a model of the bridge was assembled, with the purpose to attempt to reenact the test procedure and realistically capture the failure load and behaviour. This in order to be able to conclude what kind of failure that occurred. The initial part of this thesis presents a summary of a conducted literature study, which aims to give deeper knowledge regarding the linear shear and punching shear phenomena and their respective failure mechanisms, and how they are applied on bridge slabs. Furthermore, the shear capacity of the bridge was calculated according to current design codes. A parameter study was conducted on the model, which initially showed a over-stiff response. The aim of this was to study the influence of key variables on the outcome of the analysis, and hopefully get closer to the failure load acquired inthe experiment. From the studied parameters, it was observed that a combined reduction of the tensile strength and fracture energy, together with a low fixed crack coefficient had the largest influence on the outcome of the analysis. It was also observed that the location of the failure and failing load was dependant on how the loading was applied to the model, i.e. via load control or deformation control. The final model failed at a load which surpassed the actual failure load by 10.5%. The mode of failure obtained in all the analyses were the result of a large shear crack propagating from the edges of the loading plate, through the slab to the slab/girder-intersection. This indicates that the type of failure that occurred was primarily due to a linear shear mechanism with a secondary punching effect. The design values calculated by keeping with the current codes resulted in too conservative values when compared to the obtained failure load from the experiment. This proves the difficulty in regarding the internal force distribution in slab struc-tures as well as the shear carrying width, which from the analysis were found to be larger than that obtained from the code. / Denna uppsats behandlar en utredning gällande brottet i plattan på Gruvvägsbron, som var resultatet av det fullskaletest som bron utsattes för innan rivning. Med hjälp av den icke-linjära finita element-programvaran ATENA 3D skapades en modell avbron, med syfte att på ett realistiskt sätt försöka återskapa experimentet och fånga brons verkliga beteende. Detta för att således kunna dra slutsatser angående brottets natur. Den första delen av denna uppsats innehåller en sammanfattning av en utförd litteraturstudie, som ämnar ge en ökad förståelse angående fenomenen skjuvning och genomstansning, tillsammans med olika brottmekanismer relaterade till dessa. Vidare har brons motstånd mot skjuv- och genomstansningbrott beräknats enligt rådande normer. En parameterstudie utfördes på modellen, då den ursprungligen uppvisade ett överstyvt beteende. Syftet med detta var att studera nyckelparametrars påverkan på analysens resultat, och eventuellt komma närmare den verkliga brottlasten i experimentet. Av de studerade parametrarna observerades att en samtida reduktion av draghållfasthet och brottenergi, samt ett lågt värde på den så kallade "fixedcrack"-koefficienten gav störst inverkan på resultatet. Vidare observerades att brottets lokalisering och brottlasten var beroende av hur lasten påfördes modellen, dvs genom last- eller deformationsstyrning. Den slutgiltiga modellen gick till brott vid en last som översteg den verkliga brottlasten med 10.5%. Brottet som skedde var i samtliga analyser resultatet av en skjuvspricka som sträckte sig från kanten av lastplattan, genom plattan, ner till mötet mellan platta och balk. Detta indikerar att den typ av brott som skedde var ett primärt skjuvbrott med en sekundär stanseffekt. Lastvärdena beräknade enligt rådande normer tycks vara för konservativa, om jämförelse görs med lasten som uppnåddes i experimentet. Detta visar på svårigheten i att bedöma den inre kraftspridningen i plattor, och även dess skjuvbärande bredd, då analysen visade att denna var betydligt större än vad som ges i koden.

The experimental studies performed on the behaviour of very thick concrete beams subjected to static loads have revealed that the shear mechanisms play an important role in the overall response and failure behaviour. The aim of this thesis is to recommend suitable design methods for thick concrete beams subjected to off-centre static concentrated load according Eurocode 2 by using non-linear finite element analysis (NLFEA). To achieve this task, Abaqus/Explicit has been used by employing constitutive material models to capture the material non-linearity and stiffness degradation of concrete. Concrete damaged plasticity model and perfect plasticity model has been used for concrete and steel respectively. Three dilation angles (30º, 38º and 45º) and fracture energy from FIB 1990 (76 N/m) and FIB 2010 (142 N/m) has been used to investigate their influence on the finite element model. The dilation angle of 38º and FIB 2010 fracture energy was adopted as the suitable choice that reasonably matched with the experimental results. In verifying and calibrating the finite element model, the experimental results of the thick reinforced concrete beam conducted by the American Concrete Institute have been used. Three design approaches in the ultimate and serviceability limit state according to Eurocode 2 recommendations have been used namely; the beam method, strut and tie method and shell element method. Using the reinforcement detailing of the hand calculations of beam method and strut and tie method and linear finite element analysis of shell element method, non-linear finite element models have been pre-processed and analysed in Abaqus/Explicit. During the post-processing, the results have been interpreted and compared between the three design methods. The results under consideration are hand-calculated load at 0.3 mm crack width, FE-load at 0.3 mm crack width, amount of reinforcement and FE-failure load. The comparison of the results between the three design approaches (beam method, strut and tie method and shell element method) indicates that strut and tie method is better design approach, because it is relatively economic with regards to the quantity of reinforcement bars, has the higher load capacity and has a higher load at crack width of 0.3 mm crack width. / De experimentella studier som utförts på tjocka betongbalkar som utsätts för statisk last har visat att skjuvning spelar en viktig roll i brottmekanismen. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att rekommendera lämpliga dimensioneringsmetoder för tjock betongbalkar utsatt for statisk koncentrerad last enligt Eurokod 2 med hjälp av ickelinjära finita element metod. Abaqus/Explicit användes genom att utnyttja konstitutiva materialmodeller för att fånga materialens icke-linjäritet och minskad styvhet. Tre dilatationsvinklar (30°, 38° och 45°) och två brottenergi från FIB 1990 (76 N/m) och FIB 2010 (142 N/m) tillämpas för att kontrollera deras inverkan på FE-modellerna. Dilatationsvinkel med 38° och FIB 2010 med högre brottenergi valdes i de icke-linjära finita elementanalyserna. Kontroll av FE-modellerna är baserad på ”American Concret Institutes” experimentella resultat på de tjocka betongbalkarna. Handberäkningar av tjocka betongbalkar har utförts i brott- och bruksgränstillstånd med tre dimensioneringsmetoder i Eurokod 2 nämligen balk metoden, fackverksmetoden och linjära-FE skalelementmetoden. Jämförelse har gjorts för de olika dimensioneringsmetoderna, genom att använda de armeringsdetaljer av handberäkningar i de verifierade och kalibrerade icke linjära FE-modellerna i Abaqus/Explicit. Resultaten i fråga är last för 0.3 mm handberäknad sprikvidd, FE-last för 0.3 mm sprikvidd, armeringsmängd och FE-brottlast. Jämförelse av resultaten mellan de tre dimensioneringsmetoder (balkmetod, fackverksmetod och skalelementmetod) visar att fackverksmetod är bättre design metod, eftersom det är relativt ekonomiskt med avseende på armeringsmängd, har högre lastkapacitet och last på 0.3 mm sprickvidd.