This thesis investigated aspects of plant recruitment across an altitudinal gradient of mountain tops in the Victorian Alps, Australia, and provides a baseline for the patterns and processes of alpine plant recruitment in the absence of large-scale disturbance. The patterns in alpine vegetation across the study sites were described in relation to abiotic environmental factors. Temperatures were lower and precipitation was higher at the high altitude sites. The vegetation did not differ significantly between the sites, although sites at low altitudes were shrubbier than those at high altitudes. Analysis of the soil seed bank revealed high mean densities of germinable seed (80 to 1400 seeds m-2) across the gradient of sites. The similarity between the seed bank samples and the standing vegetation was low (qualitative similarity: 0.08 to 0.2; quantitative similarity: 0.03 to 0.19). In laboratory germination experiments, I found rapid and substantial germination. Final percent germination was above 90% for most species. One species, Aciphylla glacialis, showed evidence of dormancy mechanisms. In subsequent experiments, I found that innate primary seed dormancy in this species could be broken with cold-wet stratification. There were no significant patterns in natural seedling recruitment across the altitudinal gradient. Similarities between the seedling flora and the standing vegetation were low (qualitative similarity: 0.18 to 0.45: quantitative similarity 0.04 to 0.09). Mean seedling density was best predicted by a combination of soil wilting point, altitude and plant litter. In some cases, seedling density was greater than 80 seedlings m-2. The relative importance of either negative (competitive) or positive (facilitative) interactions between seedlings with adjacent vegetation were investigated in relation to seed germination, seedling growth and seedling survival. Facilitative interactions were common at the higher altitude sites. At lower altitudes, facilitative and competitive interactions were common. Without close neighbours at high altitudes, seedlings were unlikely to survive into their second year. An understanding of plant recruitment can provide a useful basis for predicting species responses to large-scale disturbance and climate change.

No / The study is based on a previously proposed methodology for multiaxial fatigue life assessment of injection-molded components (called ‘Through Process Modeling’ (TPM)). The present contribution focuses on stress concentration effects induced in notched samples. Purely macroscopic approaches are unable to capture the different mechanical responses of variably injected parts with the same shape. A high interest of the present method is to take into account the difference of fiber orientation resulting from the process. After briefly reminding the TPM method, it will be shown that good lifetime estimations are obtained for laterally injected samples, from a fatigue criterion identification based on longitudinally injected ones.

abstract: Polymer matrix composites (PMCs) are attractive structural materials due to their high stiffness to low weight ratio. However, unidirectional PMCs have low shear strength and failure can occur along kink bands that develop on compression due to plastic microbuckling that carry strains large enough to induce nonlinear matrix deformation. Reviewing the literature, a large fraction of the existing work is for uniaxial compression, and the effects of stress gradients, such as those present during bending, have not been as well explored, and these effects are bound to make difference in terms of kink band nucleation and growth. Furthermore, reports on experimental measurements of strain fields leading to and developing inside these bands in the presence of stress gradients are also scarce and need to be addressed to gain a full understanding of their behavior when UDCs are used under bending and other spatially complex stress states. In a light to bridge the aforementioned gaps, the primary focus of this work is to understand mechanisms for kink band evolution under an influence of stress-gradients induced during bending. Digital image correlation (DIC) is used to measure strains inside and around the kink bands during 3-point bending of samples with 0°/90° stacking made of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Fibers. Measurements indicate bands nucleate at the compression side and propagate into the sample carrying a mixture of large shear and normal strains (~33%), while also decreasing its bending stiffness. Failure was produced by a combination of plastic microbuckling and axial splitting. The microstructure of the kink bands was studied and used in a microstructurally explicit finite element model (FEM) to analyze stresses and strains at ply level in the samples during kink band evolution, using cohesive zone elements to represent the interfaces between plies. Cohesive element properties were deduced by a combination of delamination, fracture and three-point bending tests used to calibrate the FEMs. Modeling results show that the band morphology is sensitive to the shear and opening properties of the interfaces between the plies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Mechanical Engineering 2016

Um die Leistung und Lebensdauer von energietechnischen Komponenten weiter zu steigern, sind höhere Leistungen, Leistungsdichten sowie Prozesswirkungsgrade zentrale Bestandteile künftiger Entwicklungen. Mit steigernden Leistungsdichten erhöhen sich auch stetig die Belastungen der einzelnen Komponenten. Zusammen mit neuen Werkstoffen und technologischem Fortschritt, wie beispielsweise verbesserten Kühltechnologien oder strömungstechnischen Optimierungen ermöglicht auch eine verbesserte Kenntnis der Belastungsbedingungen und des Schädigungsverhaltens höhere Leistungen und Leistungsdichten. Aktuelle Gasturbinen und oft auch Kraftwerkskomponenten unterliegen zusätzlich zu den mechanischen und zeitlich variablen thermischen Beanspruchungen auch großen örtlichen thermischen Gradienten, die die Lebensdauer der Komponenten stark beeinflussen. Diese thermischen Gradienten induzieren zum einen zusätzliche Beanspruchungen und die örtlich variablen Temperaturfelder führen zum anderen zu stark variierenden Werkstofffestigkeiten. In dieser Arbeit wird ein Prüfstand zur realistischen Prüfung eines typischen Gasturbinenschaufelmaterials Mar-M247 entwickelt und mit diesem eine systematische experimentelle Untersuchung des Einflusses thermischer Gradienten auf die niederzyklische Ermüdungsfestigkeit unter erhöhten Temperaturen durchgeführt. Im weiteren Teil der Arbeit wird ein visko-elasto-plastisches Materialmodell weiterentwickelt, um die lokal unsymmetrische Beanspruchung der Proben unter zyklischer Last realistisch abbilden zu können. Mit Hilfe von Experimenten aus der Literatur werden dabei zunächst die Grenzen und Möglichkeiten des Modells diskutiert, um es dann auf den konkreten Werkstoff anzupassen. Der wesentliche Vorteil des entwickelten Modells liegt in der verbesserten Beschreibung des zyklischen Kriechens und zyklischen Relaxierens (Ratcheting) insbesondere unter einachsiger Beanspruchung und in der nachträglichen Anpassungsmöglichkeit des spezifischen Ratchetingterms nach der Anpassung aller anderen Materialparameter. Die Analyse der experimentell ermittelten Lebensdauern erfolgt sowohl mit ingenieurmäßigen Methoden basierend auf der spannungsabhängigen Lebensdauerbeschreibung nach Basquinund Wöhler als auch mittels eines lokalen bruchmechanischen Ansatzes, der es ermöglicht,sowohl die Rissinitiierung als auch den Rissfortschritt unter variabler Temperatur und kombinierter Kriech- und Ermüdungsbeanspruchung zu beschreiben. Das Material- und Lebensdauermodell werden zusammen im letzten Teil der Arbeit eingesetzt, um das Verformungs- und Lebensdauerverhalten der untersuchten Proben zu berechnenund es kann gezeigt werden, dass sich die Versuche mit sehr guter Qualität wiedergeben lassen.:Versicherung i Abstract iii Kurzfassung v List of abbreviations and symbols xi 1 Introduction 1 2 Objective 5 3 State of the art 7 3.1 Thermal and mechanical loading of gas turbine components . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.2 Material characterisation of nickel-based superalloys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.3 Deformation modelling based on constitutive material laws . . . . . . . . . . 13 3.3.1 Ramberg-Osgood material law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 3.3.2 Strain and stress tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.3.3 Thermodynamic principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.4 Elasto-visco-plastic material models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3.4.1 Isotropic hardening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.4.2 Kinematic hardening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.4.3 Kinematic hardening for improved simulation of ratcheting . . . . . . 18 3.4.4 Viscosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 3.5 Failure at elevated temperatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 3.5.1 Fundamental fatigue life models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 3.5.2 Creep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 3.5.3 Crack growth models for fatigue loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 3.5.4 Creep crack growth based on C(t) and C ∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 3.5.5 Temperature dependency and normalization methods . . . . . . . . . 35 3.5.6 Lifetime under temperature variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 3.5.7 Influence of mean stresses on lifetime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 3.5.8 Influence of oxidation on failure at elevated temperatures . . . . . . . 42 3.5.9 Constitutive damage and crack growth models . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 3.6 Experimental methods for the generation of large homogeneously distributed heat flux densities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 3.6.1 Resistance heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 3.6.2 Inductive heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 3.6.3 Convective heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 3.6.4 Laser based heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 3.6.5 Radiation heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 3.7 Conclusion on the state of the art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 4 Development of a test system for cyclic fatigue tests under homogeneous surface temperature conditions 59 4.1 Boundary conditions for the development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 4.2 Concept for a test system with a new highly focusing heating . . . . . . . . . 60 4.2.1 Simulation of heat fluxes of different furnace geometries by ray-tracing 60 4.3 Definition of reflection and transmission coefficient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 4.3.1 Simulation of the radiation behaviour for the furnace concepts . . . . 66 4.4 Analytical calculation of heat transfer inside the hollow specimen . . . . . . . 71 4.5 Finite element calculation of temperature distribution in the specimen wall . 73 4.6 Design and evaluation of the specimen internal cooling system . . . . . . . . . 75 4.6.1 Installation of heating and development of the load train . . . . . . . 81 5 Experimental investigation 85 5.1 Measurement of surface temperatures and thermal gradients . . . . . . . . . . 87 5.1.1 Measurement of surface temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 5.1.2 Axial surface temperature distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 5.1.3 Measurement of thermal gradients across specimen wall . . . . . . . . 92 5.2 Results of isothermal ratcheting tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 5.3 Deformation behaviour of cyclic tests with superimposed thermal gradients . 98 5.3.1 Variation of mean strain and mean stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 5.4 Termination criteria for the tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 5.4.1 Measurement of modulus of elasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 5.5 Low cycle fatigue life of Mar-M247 with and without superimposed thermal gradient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 5.6 Results of hollow cylindrical specimen testing with thermal gradients . . . . . 108 6 Microstructural investigation 113 7 Deformation modeling with improved ratcheting simulation based on small scale strain theory 123 7.1 Modeling of ratcheting behaviour of Mar-M247 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 7.1.1 Improvement of uniaxial ratcheting description for the Armstrong- Frederick-model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 7.1.2 Evaluation of the proposed model for multiaxiality . . . . . . . . . . . 129 7.2 Application of the deformation model on Mar-M247 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 8 Lifetime calculation of the nickel-base-superalloy Mar-M247 based on engineering and crack growth methods 139 8.1 Modification of the Krämer crack growth model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 8.2 Choice of basic variable for the fatigue crack growth and crack initiation . . . 140 8.3 Oxidation based crack growth model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 8.4 Creep crack growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 8.5 Creep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 8.6 Fatigue life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 8.6.1 Extension of the Paris crack growth model based on intrinsic defect size152 8.6.2 Crack length independent formulation of J-integral . . . . . . . . . . . 154 8.7 Combined model for comprehensive description of the crack-initiation and -growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 8.7.1 Comparison to crack growth experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 8.7.2 Comparison to fatigue experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 9 Application of material and crack growth model to the experiments with superimposed thermal gradient 167 9.1 Geometry function for the hollow specimen investigated . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 9.2 Application of the crack growth model on non-isothermal tests . . . . . . . . 170 9.2.1 Calculation of the stress strain field of hollow cylindrical specimen subjected to thermally induced stress gradients with the elasto-visco- plastic model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 9.2.2 Calculated crack growth behaviour under locally non-isothermal con- ditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 10 Conclusion and outlook 181 Bibliography 185