<p>Carbon-fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) are often used in the aerospace and automotive  industries for their high strength-to-weight ratios and corrosion resistance. A new class of  composites – known as Prepreg Platelet Molded Composites (PPMCs) – offers further  advantageous such as high forming capabilities with modest compromises in strength and stiffness.  One such property of PPMCs that have garnered interest over the years is their apparent  insensitivity to notches. Previous studies have researched the effect of specimen size and platelet  length on its effect on the open-hole performance of PPMCs. Research however has focused on  thinner samples with smaller hole sizes and neglected thicker samples with larger holes.  Additionally, while platelet sizes have been investigated for unnotched samples, platelet width on  notched samples is less clear from the literature. The present thesis offers some investigations to  aid in filling this knowledge gap. </p> <p><br></p> <p>The objective of this work is to study two parameters that could influence the performance of PPMCs under open-hole tension. First, thick (7.6 mm) specimens are subjected to large hole  sizes (up to 19.08 mm) to investigate their behavior in comparison to the smaller sample sizes  previously investigated in the literature. Through-thickness DIC measurements are taken to  investigate strain gradients in these thicker specimens. Second, various platelet widths are tested  to research their influence on notch insensitivity of open-hole tensile PPMC specimens. Lastly, a  finite element based continuum damage mechanics model is implemented to predict macro-level  structural properties using only material properties of the parent prepreg. It is found that large holes  in thick samples increase notch sensitivity compared to other samples of similar diameter-to-width  ratios. Narrower platelets were found to produce higher unnotched strengths, while wider platelets  offered more notch insensitivity. Lastly, the finite element model developed was found to  qualitatively replicate features and failure modes that are exhibited by PPMCs, though strength  predictions became inaccurate at larger specimen sizes. Recommendations are made for future  work on the basis of these findings.   </p>

The response of elliptical composite cylindrical shells under torsion is studied. The torsional condition is developed by rotating one end of the cylinder relative to the other. Prebuckling, buckling, and postbuckling responses are examined, and material failure is considered. Four elliptical cross sections, defined by their aspect ratio, the ratio of minor to major radii, are considered: 1.00 (circular), 0.85, 0.70, and 0.55. Two overall cylinder sizes are studied; a small size with a radius and length for the circular cylinder of 4.28 in. and 12.85 in., respectively, and a large size with radii and lengths five times larger, and thicknesses two times larger than the small cylinders. The radii of the elliptical cylinders are determined so the circumference is the same for all cylinders of a given size. For each elliptical cylinder, two lengths are considered. One length is equal to the length of the circular cylinder, and the other length has a sensitivity of the buckling twist to changes in the length-to-radius ratio the same as the circular cylinder. A quasi-isotropic lamination sequence of a medium-modulus graphite-epoxy composite material is assumed. The STAGS finite element code is used to obtain numerical results. The geometrically-nonlinear static and transient, eigenvalue, and progressive failure analysis options in the code are employed. Generally, the buckling twist and resulting torque decrease with decreasing aspect ratio. Due to material anisotropy, the buckling values are generally smaller for a negative twist than a positive twist. Relative to the buckling torque, cylinders with aspect ratios of 1.00 and 0.85 show little or no increase in capacity in the postbuckling range, while cylinders with aspect ratios of 0.70 and 0.55 show an increase. Postbuckling shapes are characterized by wave-like deformations, with ridges and valleys forming a helical pattern due to the nature of loading. The amplitudes of the deformations are dependent on cross-sectional geometry. Some elliptical cylinders develop wave-like deformations prior to buckling. Instabilities in the postbuckling range result in shape changes and loss of torque capacity. Material failure occurs on ridges and in valleys. Cylinder size and cross-sectional geometry influence the initiation and progression of failure. / Ph. D.

This thesis presents a finite element method based comparative study of linear and geometrically non-linear progressive failure analysis of thin walled composite aerospace structures, which are typically subjected to combined in-plane and out-of-plane loadings. Different ply and constituent based failure criteria and material property degradation schemes have been included in a PCL code to be executed in MSC Nastran. As case studies, progressive failure analyses of sample composite laminates with cut-outs under combined loading are executed to study the effect of geometric non-linearity on the first ply failure and progression of failure. Ply and constituent based failure criteria and different material property degradation schemes are also compared in terms of predicting the first ply failure and failure progression. For mode independent failure criteria, a method is proposed for the determination of separate material property degradation factors for fiber and matrix failures which are assumed to occur simultaneously. The results of the present study show that under combined out-of-plane and in-plane loading, linear analysis can significantly underestimate or overestimate the failure progression compared to geometrically non-linear analysis even at low levels of out-of-plane loading.

The objective of this thesis is to investigate the progressive failure behavior of laminated fiber reinforced composite shell structures under different loading conditions. The laminates are assumed to be orthotropic and the first order shear deformation theory is applied. Three-node layered flat-shell elements are used in the analysis. To verify the numerical results obtained, experimental and analytical results found in literature are compared with the outputs of the study, and the comparison is found to have shown good agreement with the previous work. Rectangular graphite/epoxy composite laminates under transverse loading are analyzed through several boundary conditions and stacking sequences. Maximum stress criteria, Hashin&rsquo / s criteria and Tsai Wu criteria are employed to detect the failure and progressive failure methodology is be implemented according to instantaneous degradation approach. First ply failure, final failure loads, corresponding deformations and failure patterns are presented and compared.

Concrete dams located in northern regions are exposed to large seasonal temperature variations. These seasonal temperature variations have resulted in cracking in thin concrete dams. Continuous monitoring and evaluation of existing dams are important to increase the knowledge about massive concrete structures and to ensure dam safety.  The aim of this degree project is to increase the knowledge about how cracking occurs in concrete dams and how it affects the dam safety. This was achieved by simulating the development of cracks in a concrete arch dam exposed to seasonal temperature variations using finite element analysis (FEA). The accuracy of the model was evaluated by comparing the results with measurements from a Swedish concrete arch dam. Finally, effect of cracks and temperature on the dam safety was investigated.  FEA was used to predict the crack pattern and displacements in the arch dam. The analyses were performed both with linear elastic and nonlinear material behavior. Two models were analyzed, in one model the dam was considered to be a homogeneous arch, the other model included contraction joints. The cracking was simulated using temperature envelopes from the location of the Swedish arch dam. To evaluate the displacements in the arch, further analyses were carried out, where the cracked arch dam was exposed to the actual temperature variations at the location. The results were compared to the crack pattern and measurements of displacements of the Swedish arch dam. To investigate the effects from the cracking on the safety of the dam, a progressive failure analyses performed.  The results show that the downstream face of the arch cracked under hydrostatic pressure. The cracks propagated further during winter when the temperature load was applied. The resulting crack pattern corresponded well with the survey of the cracks from the Swedish arch dam. The FE-models with nonlinear material developed a horizontal plastic hinge due to excessive cracking in a region halfway down from the crest. The plastic hinge affected the shape of the deflected arch. The magnitude of the displacements and the shape of the deflected arch was captured with the nonlinear models. A safety factor of 3 for internal structural failure in the arch was found in the failure analyses. The safety factor of the arch only decreased slightly due to the cracking. During a cold winter, the safety factor decreased to 2.5. / Betongdammar belägna i nordliga klimat blir utsatta för stora säsongsburna temperaturvariationer. Dessa temperaturvariationer har orsakat sprickbildning i tunna betongdammar. Kontinuerlig övervakning och utvärdering av befintliga dammar är viktigt för att öka kunskapen om massiva betongkonstruktioner och för att säkerställa dammsäkerheten.  Syftet med det här examensarbetet är att öka kunskapen om hur sprickor uppstår i valvdammar samt hur de påverkar anläggningens säkerhet. Målet är att med finit elementanalys (FEA) analysera uppsprickningen av betongen i en valvdamm som påverkas av säsongsburna temperaturvariationer. Tillförlitligheten i modellen utvärderas genom att jämföra med mätningar från en svensk valvdamm av liknande dimensioner. Slutligen utvärderas hur dammens säkerhet påverkas av sprickbildningen.  FE-analys användes för att förutsäga sprickmönstret och förskjutningarna i valvdammen. Analyserna utfördes både med linjärelastiskt och icke-linjärt materialbeteende. Två modeller användes i analysen, i ena modellen betraktades dammen som homogen och i den andra inkluderades gjutfogar. Sprickmönstret simulerades med temperaturcykler baserade på extremtemperaturer tagna intill den svenska valvdammen. För att utvärdera förskjutningarna i dammen gjordes vidare analyser där den spruckna dammen utsattes för temperaturvariationer uppmätta från samma plasts. Resultaten från analysen jämfördes med mätningar av förskjutningar och kartering av sprickor från den svenska valvdammen. För att undersöka hur säkerheten påverkades av sprickbildningen utfördes progressiv brottanalys.  Resultaten visar att dammen spricker på nedströmssidan när den utsätts för vattentryck. Sprickorna fortplantas under vintern när temperaturlasten appliceras. Sprickmönstret stämmer överens med kartering av den verkliga dammen. FE-modellerna med icke-linjärt materialbeteende utvecklade en plastisk led längs horisontella sprickor halvvägs ner från krönet. Den plastiska leden påverkade dammens utböjda form. Förskjutningarna och dammens utböjda form i de ickelinjära modellerna stämmer väl överens med de uppmätta förskjutningarna. Vid brottanalysen var säkerhetsfaktorn mot materialbrott i dammen 3. Säkerhetsfaktorn minskade något till följd av sprickorna. Under en kall vinter sjönk säkerhetsfaktorn till 2,5.

AbstractThe overall safety of dams depend on several stipulations. One of them is global stability of the dam, which is addressed with approaches like that in (RIDAS, 2017) (the Swedish power companies’ guidelines for dam safety). When designing a new dam, two global failure modes; sliding and overturning should be considered according to RIDAS. However, this is a simplification and other failure modes may exist, such as the combination of sliding and overturning failure. In this combined mode, the dam typically starts to overturn slightly, then as it looses its contact in the upstream area of the footprint, the dam starts to slide. This combined failure mode is yet to be fully addressed in design codes.One additional failure mode that may occur is an internal failure which is caused by material failure of the dam or where existing cracks govern the failure mode. Reinforced concrete structures are expected to crack and hence it likely that such failure mode may occur. The objective of this report is to understand the behavior of a pre-cracked buttress dam under typical loading conditions, and to analyze potential internal failure modes caused by these cracks. Moreover, the validity of using RIDAS design criteria for evaluating the safety of cracked concrete buttress dams will be examined. Finally, this report will study the influence of various possible cracks to study if these are critical and influence the overall dam safety.The stated objectives were investigated by performing analytical calculations and FE-analyses for three different geometries, where each geometry was analyzed with and without pre-existing cracks. The analytical calculations were carried out using MATLAB, to study the two global failure modes suggested by RIDAS: sliding and overturning for the selected geometries. FE-analyses were performed using BRIGADE Plus 6.2 software, where all geometries were studied for all potential global failure modes, including a combination of sliding and overturning failure modes. When comparing results of uncracked and cracked sections, whether it was obtained analytically or by FE-analyses, the influence of cracks in reducing the overall safety of the structure could be clearly highlighted. Moreover, the results comparing analytical solution using RIDAS and FE-analysis did not follow a uniform pattern, therefore, no concrete results could be concluded and further studies to develop more detailed analytical calculation methods were suggested. Finally, the cracks develop between the inspection gangway and the front-plate was proven to have larger influence on the residual mass of the dam, and thus, the overall safety of the dam.

Recent improvements in manufacturing processes and materials properties associated with excellent mechanical characteristics and low weight have became composite materials very attractive for application on civil aircraft structures. However, even new designs are still very conservative, because the composite structure failure phenomena are very complex. Several failure criteria and theories have been developed to describe the damage process and how it evolves, but the solution of the problem is still open. Moreover, modern manufacturing processes, e.g. filament winding, have been used to produce a wide variety of structural shapes. Therefore, this work presents the development of a damage model and its application to simulate the progressive failure of flat composite laminates as well as for composite cylinders made by filament winding process. The proposed damage model has been implemented as a UMAT (User Material Subroutine) and VUMAT (User Material Subroutine for explicit simulations), which were linked to ABAQUSTM Finite Element (FE) commercial package. Progressive failure analyses have been carried out using FE Method in order to simulate the failure of filament wound composite structures under different quasi-static and impact loading conditions. In addition, experiments have been performed not only to identify parameters related to the material model but also to evaluate both the potentialities and the limitations of the proposed model. / As recentes melhorias nos processos de fabricação e nas propriedades dos materiais associadas a excelentes características mecânicas e baixo peso tornam os materiais compósitos muito atrativos para aplicação em estruturas aeronáuticas. No entanto, mesmo novos projetos, ainda são muito conservadores, pois os fenômenos de falha dos compósitos são muito complexos. Vários critérios e teorias de falha têm sido desenvolvidos para descrever o processo de dano e sua evolução, mas a solução do problema ainda está em aberto. Além disso, técnicas modernas de fabricação, como o enrolamento filamentar (filament winding) vêm sendo utilizadas para produzir uma ampla variedade de formas estruturais. Assim, este trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento de um modelo de dano e a sua aplicação para simular a falha progressiva de estruturas planas e cilíndricas fabricadas em material compósito através do processo de filament winding. O modelo de dano proposto foi implementado como sub-rotinas em linguagem FORTRAN (UMAT-User Material Subroutine e, VUMAT-User Material Subroutine para simulações explícitas), que foram compiladas junto ao programa comercial de Elementos Finitos ABAQUSTM. Várias análises numéricas foram realizadas via elementos finitos, a fim de prever a falha dessas estruturas de material compósito sob diferentes condições de carregamentos quase-estáticos e de impacto. Além disso, vários ensaios experimentais foram realizados, a fim de identificar os parâmetros relacionados com o modelo de material, bem como avaliar as potencialidades e as limitações do modelo proposto.

Engineered structures are designed to resist all expected loadings without failure. However, structural failures do occasionally occur due to inadequate design and construction, especially for extreme and abnormal loads. This thesis concerns the progressive collapse of structures due to abnormal loading events, and develops a method of advanced analysis for predicting the progressive collapse behaviour of building structures in the plastic limit state. Combined-stress failure states and stiffness degradation models are proposed to simulate plastic deformation of structural members. Elliptic force-deformation relationships are employed to model the nonlinear material behaviour of members. The stiffness degradation of semirigid connections is modeled by a moment-rotation relationship with four parameters. Having the proposed nonlinear model, a generic member stiffness matrix is derived taking into account elastic-plastic bending, shearing and axial deformations. A computer-based incremental-load nonlinear analysis procedure is developed that progressively updates member stiffness using reduction factors that simulate degraded stiffness behaviour. Three types of localized damage modes are investigated to identify different connection damage scenarios. Account is taken of any debris loading that occurs when disengaged structural components fall onto lower parts of the structure. The associated dynamic effect is taken into account for the quasi-static analysis by utilizing an impact amplification factor. Any progressive collapse occurring thereafter involves a series of failure events associated with topological changes. The progressive-failure analysis procedure is based on the alternate-load-path method suggested in the design and analysis guidelines of the General Services of Administration (GSA, 2003) and the Department of Defense (DoD, 2005). The residual load carrying capacity of the damaged framework is analyzed by incrementally applying prevailing long-term loads and impact debris loads. The deterioration of structural strength is progressively traced to the state at which either global stability is reached or progressive collapse to ground level occurs for part or all of the structure. The analysis procedure is extensively illustrated for several planar steel moment frames, including account for the influence of damaged connections and semi-rigid connection behaviour. The results obtained demonstrate that the proposed method is potentially a powerful tool for the analysis of steel building structures under normal and abnormal loads.

Engineered structures are designed to resist all expected loadings without failure. However, structural failures do occasionally occur due to inadequate design and construction, especially for extreme and abnormal loads. This thesis concerns the progressive collapse of structures due to abnormal loading events, and develops a method of advanced analysis for predicting the progressive collapse behaviour of building structures in the plastic limit state. Combined-stress failure states and stiffness degradation models are proposed to simulate plastic deformation of structural members. Elliptic force-deformation relationships are employed to model the nonlinear material behaviour of members. The stiffness degradation of semirigid connections is modeled by a moment-rotation relationship with four parameters. Having the proposed nonlinear model, a generic member stiffness matrix is derived taking into account elastic-plastic bending, shearing and axial deformations. A computer-based incremental-load nonlinear analysis procedure is developed that progressively updates member stiffness using reduction factors that simulate degraded stiffness behaviour. Three types of localized damage modes are investigated to identify different connection damage scenarios. Account is taken of any debris loading that occurs when disengaged structural components fall onto lower parts of the structure. The associated dynamic effect is taken into account for the quasi-static analysis by utilizing an impact amplification factor. Any progressive collapse occurring thereafter involves a series of failure events associated with topological changes. The progressive-failure analysis procedure is based on the alternate-load-path method suggested in the design and analysis guidelines of the General Services of Administration (GSA, 2003) and the Department of Defense (DoD, 2005). The residual load carrying capacity of the damaged framework is analyzed by incrementally applying prevailing long-term loads and impact debris loads. The deterioration of structural strength is progressively traced to the state at which either global stability is reached or progressive collapse to ground level occurs for part or all of the structure. The analysis procedure is extensively illustrated for several planar steel moment frames, including account for the influence of damaged connections and semi-rigid connection behaviour. The results obtained demonstrate that the proposed method is potentially a powerful tool for the analysis of steel building structures under normal and abnormal loads.

Recent improvements in manufacturing processes and materials properties associated with excellent mechanical characteristics and low weight have became composite materials very attractive for application on civil aircraft structures. However, even new designs are still very conservative, because the composite structure failure phenomena are very complex. Several failure criteria and theories have been developed to describe the damage process and how it evolves, but the solution of the problem is still open. Moreover, modern manufacturing processes, e.g. filament winding, have been used to produce a wide variety of structural shapes. Therefore, this work presents the development of a damage model and its application to simulate the progressive failure of flat composite laminates as well as for composite cylinders made by filament winding process. The proposed damage model has been implemented as a UMAT (User Material Subroutine) and VUMAT (User Material Subroutine for explicit simulations), which were linked to ABAQUSTM Finite Element (FE) commercial package. Progressive failure analyses have been carried out using FE Method in order to simulate the failure of filament wound composite structures under different quasi-static and impact loading conditions. In addition, experiments have been performed not only to identify parameters related to the material model but also to evaluate both the potentialities and the limitations of the proposed model. / As recentes melhorias nos processos de fabricação e nas propriedades dos materiais associadas a excelentes características mecânicas e baixo peso tornam os materiais compósitos muito atrativos para aplicação em estruturas aeronáuticas. No entanto, mesmo novos projetos, ainda são muito conservadores, pois os fenômenos de falha dos compósitos são muito complexos. Vários critérios e teorias de falha têm sido desenvolvidos para descrever o processo de dano e sua evolução, mas a solução do problema ainda está em aberto. Além disso, técnicas modernas de fabricação, como o enrolamento filamentar (filament winding) vêm sendo utilizadas para produzir uma ampla variedade de formas estruturais. Assim, este trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento de um modelo de dano e a sua aplicação para simular a falha progressiva de estruturas planas e cilíndricas fabricadas em material compósito através do processo de filament winding. O modelo de dano proposto foi implementado como sub-rotinas em linguagem FORTRAN (UMAT-User Material Subroutine e, VUMAT-User Material Subroutine para simulações explícitas), que foram compiladas junto ao programa comercial de Elementos Finitos ABAQUSTM. Várias análises numéricas foram realizadas via elementos finitos, a fim de prever a falha dessas estruturas de material compósito sob diferentes condições de carregamentos quase-estáticos e de impacto. Além disso, vários ensaios experimentais foram realizados, a fim de identificar os parâmetros relacionados com o modelo de material, bem como avaliar as potencialidades e as limitações do modelo proposto.