Blades used on brushcutters and lawn mowers are subjected to a wide variety of working conditions. Besides continuous loads from cutting grass, the blades are also subjected to accidental impacts of branches, stones and structures. Due to exceptionally high rotational velocities, these types of impacts involve blade deformation at high strain rates. This master’s thesis aims to improve understanding and predictability of blade properties for design of future blades. The project is aimed at characterization of the mechanical response of steel used for brushcutter blades and developing a simulation model of a blade impact load case. Thus, the problem was divided into two main parts: firstly, material characterization, and secondly, numerical modeling. The objective of the material characterization part was to determine the rate dependence of the flow stress for two hardened steels. Experimental compression tests were performed at quasi-static strain rates (10-4 - 10-2 s-1) and at high strain rates (102 - 104 s-1) in order to characterize the rate dependence of each material. The objective of the numerical modeling part was to develop simulation models of an impact load case for the purpose of recreating tests performed with an experimental test setup. The simulation models were aimed to include material models for the blade based on the experimental tests performed for the two hardened steels. In preparation for the compression tests, cylindrical specimens were acquired through electrical discharge machining involving material removal from blades intended for brushcutters. Compression tests at high strain rates were performed utilizing a split-Hopkinson pressure bar apparatus which resulted in strain rates in the order of 1000 s-1 and 3000 s-1. Compression tests at quasi-static strain rates were performed with an electro-mechanical loading machine and implementation of two-dimensional digital image correlation for strain measurements. With this method, strain rates in the order of 5 · 10-2 s-1 and 5 · 10-4 s-1 were achieved. The acquired results from the experimental tests included the response of the two materials at four different strain rates in the form of true stress-true strain curves. The results were indicative of small strain rate dependency for each of the two hardened steels with a slight increase in yield stress for increasing strain rates. Both materials exhibited closely similar characteristics. At quasi-static rates, the response of both materials exhibited work-hardening of closely similar characteristics. At high strain rates, the response of both materials exhibited a close to identical decrease in stress for values of strain exceeding 10 %. This behavior was suggested to be a consequence of adiabatic heating. At all four achieved strain rates, the results were indicative of a higher yield stress with higher subsequent stresses for one of the hardened steels in comparison to the other. The impact load case aimed to be simulated involved one swing of a brushcutter against a 25 mm diameter steel rod according to standard SS-EN ISO 11806-1:2011. The steel rod was specified to be impacted horizontally by the blade at an approaching translational velocity of 1 m/s and a blade rotational velocity of 8500 rpm. The multi-physics simulation software LS-DYNA was used to develop simulation models which consisted of two main parts, the blade and the rod and included two different blade geometries. As a result of a study regarding the suitability of different discretization techniques, the decision was made to implement the mesh-free particle method Smoothed Particle Galerkin (SPG) and to perform coupling with the finite element method (FEM). Two material models were developed based on the measured stress-strain response obtained through high strain rate compression testing. Several numerical models of the impact load case were produced, all of which entailed different sets of parameters. These included selection of blade material, failure strain, rod length and blade angle relative to the horizontal plane. Finally, two models were developed which were opposite in terms of assigned element formulation for the blade tip and the rod and otherwise identical. The results of the different models were then compared, namely in terms of resulting material failure of the blade after impact. It was concluded that SPG was the most suitable method of choice for the impact load case aimed to be simulated due to its ability to handle large deformation and the inclusion of the a bond-based failure mechanism. Furthermore, implementation of the SPG method resulted in deformation and failure considered to be of greater agreement to experimental test results compared to FEM.

Volvos trucks are used to carry boulders of varying sizes from different mining sites or construction sites. These boulders are loaded onto the dumper of the truck by a wheel-loader which drops the boulders from various heights causing an impulse like force which distributes throughout the frame and to the rest of the truck. Depending on the size and what height the boulders are being dropped from, the distributed forces can cause damage to important parts of the truck. An experiment done by Volvo has shown that a two-ton weight dropped from 3.5 meters caused some truck components to crack, such as flywheel housing. Since this is alerting and it is costly to do the experiment on all trucks that Volvo manufactures it is our objective to come up with a method based on Finite Element which would evaluate the rock loading case. By using ANSA as the pre-processor which helps set up the model before running a simulation, and Nastran and LS-DYNA as the FEM solvers, a result was obtained that is somewhat comparable with the measurements. In the Nastran model, no non-linearities such as contact were considered, while in LS-DYNA nonlinear contact between the weight and the dumper body was defined, which improved the results considerably. The key conclusion from the two results was that the contact definition used in LS-DYNA is necessary if accurate results are important. Since LS-DYNA uses an explicit numerical method the model can be made more complicated by including more nonlinearities in the model and it would not affect the computation to much or at all. Hence the method would be future proof.

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Airbags are a passive safety technology, required to function with zero failure rate. Advances in Computer Aided Engineering have allowed vehicle manufacturers to predict material and system behavior in the event of a crash. The sudden and rapid nature of a vehicle frontal crash, together with strict requirements put on safety make this a sensitive task. This thesis focuses on the front passenger airbag deployment and the instrument panel’s response. Various airbag modelling techniques are studied and presented in this document. This work is part of a larger-scale attempt to model a generic-sled that is physically representative of a real vehicle. Various component tests are to be performed in the sled environment, as opposed to a real vehicle, to save costs. Various modules are added to the sled once their behavior is verified by testing and in simulations. Software are advanced enough to identify location and magnitude of stress concentrations that develop during crash. LS-DYNA is used for explicit finite element simulations of the instrument panel (IP) in question with different airbag models. Verification has been achieved by design of experiment (DOE); with tests conducted to capture both the movements of the airbag housing and IP movements in response. These movements are broken down in various phases, facilitating implementation in the sled environment. Simplifications are made both to the computer models as well as the physical testing environment. The effects of these simplifications are quantified and discussed. Theoretical background is provided where fit while assumptions are justified wherever made. DYNAmore recommendations regarding costeffective calculations as well as result verification are followed. The obtained results show that the FE models replicate the real event with acceptable precision. The findings in this work can, by minor tweaks, be implemented on other IP models in the Volvo Cars range, leading to cost-saving solutions. This thesis provides the necessary information for sled implementations as well as future improvement suggestions. / Krockkudde är en s.k. passiv säkerhetsteknik som krävs att fungera felfritt. Framsteg inom Computer Aided Engineering har tillåtit biltillverkare att förutsäga material och systembeteende i samband med krock. Den plötsliga karaktären av krock, tillsammans med höga säkerhetskrav, gör detta till en känslig uppgift. Denna avhandling fokuserar på passagerarsidans krockkudde och instrumentbrädans (IP) respons under uppblåsning. Olika metoder för modellering av krockkuddar har studerats och presenteras i detta dokument. Arbetet är en del av en större skala försök att modellera en generisk-släde som är fysiskt representativ av en riktig bil; där olika komponent-tester skall utföras för att minska kostnader. När olika modulers beteende verifieras läggs de till släden. Denna verifiering sker genom finita element (FE) simuleringar så väl som fysiska tester. FE mjukvara är idag tillräckligt avancerad för att identifiera samt visualisera spänningskoncentrationer som uppstår i en konstruktion vid krock. LS-DYNA används i detta arbete för explicita FE simuleringar av en Volvo XC90 IP, lastad med olika krockkudde-modeller. Modell verifiering har uppnåtts genom försöksplanering (DOE); med tester utförda för att fånga rörelser av IP så väl som krockkudde-behållaren. Dessa rörelser är sedan uppdelade i olika faser för enklare genomförande i släde miljön. Förenklingar och antaganden görs både till FE modeller och fysiska testmiljön. Effekter av dessa har kvantifierats och relevant teoretisk bakgrund har inkluderats. Dokumentet innehåller även diskussion kring val av mätutrustning samt förbättringsförslag för fortsatt arbete. DYNAmore rekommendationer gällande kostnadseffektiva beräkningar och verifiering av simulerings-resultat har följts. Under arbetet visade sig att FE modellerna kan återskapa händelsen med hög noggrannhet; dessa trotts svårigheter i modellering av plast material. Möjligtvis kan man, genom mindre modifieringar, relatera slutsatserna i detta arbete till olika IP modeller i företagets produktkatalog vilket förmodligen leder till ytterligare kostnadsbesparingar. Denna avhandling ger den information som behövs för genomföranden i den generiska miljön.

When dealing with the separation of materials, the metal shearing process such as punching, is widely used in theindustry due to its time efficient manner. There is however, a need to better understand the process in order toimprove quality of the final product. Working with numerical simulations of themetal shearing process, there aretwo major difficulties. One being the extremely large deformation, the other being material failure. The combinationof these two makes numerical modeling challenging and is the reason for this study.The problem was divided in to two main parts, one where material modeling was studied, the other part focusedon numerical modeling and experiments of the punching process. A material model considering both plasticityandmaterial failure was created for a boron steel material. Plasticity behavior of thematerial was modeled with anelasto-plastic model and a calibratedModifiedMohr-Coulomb (MMC) failure criterion to model the material failure.The resultingMMC-model agreed well with the experiments.Punching experiments with varying clearances were performed on the boron steel. Punch forces and displacementswere continuously sampled throughout the process, and after the punching experiments were finished the punchededge profiles were studied. The multiphysics simulation software LS-DYNA was then utilized, and three dimensionalsimulations of the punching process using the Smoothed Particle Galerkin (SPG)method were performed.Results from the SPG-simulation corresponded very well with the results from punching experiments, and it can beconcluded that the model was able to capture the material behavior of the sheet in a highly detailed level. When thepunched edge profiles from the simulations were compared to the experiments, there was an almost exact match forall the cases studied. The force-displacement behavior of the punch from simulations was in great consistency withexperimental results as well.Itwas also concluded that the combination of a stress state dependent failure criterion together with the SPG-methodshows significant possibilities to cope with three dimensional problems where large deformations in combinationwith difficultmaterial failure occurs. This study focuses on the punching process, but the generality of this novelmodeling technique can be applied to many industrial cases and is a step towards a better and more reliablemodeling of failure in combination with extremely large deformation.

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This study aims to validate a screw joint simulation model used by BAE Systems in LS-DYNA during blast simulations. It is important that the screw joint simulation model is physically correct, since the simulation results can influence major design decisions. The study provides a short overview on the subject of bolts and screws, material deformation and stress and strain in materials, of the finite element method (FEM) and on some specific numerical methods used in this study. BAE Systems started a validation project of the screw joint simulation model in 2015, but it was not finished due to other priorities. In this older project some drop-tower tests measuring the axial force in a screw joint were conducted. These old tests can now serve as validation data for the screw joint simulation model. The screw joint simulation model used by BAE Systems is dependent on a special kind of finite element formulation; a so called beam element. This study provides a finite element analysis on this simulation model, which is implemented through an established industry FEM solver called LS-DYNA. The validation of the screw joint simulation model is done against three drop-tower experiments performed at 900, 1000 and 1100mm drop height respectively. The drop-tower experiments were replicated in LS-DYNA, with a prescribed velocity on the falling parts rather than simulating a free fall and non-elastic impact. A comparison between the simulation model using beam elements, that is used by BAE Systems, and a similar simulation model using solid elements is presented as part of the validation. To make sure that the result of the study is confident, a local mesh convergence study and a study of the mass scaling numerical method in LS-DYNA is also presented. The results show that the screw joint simulation model using beam elements is valid according to the available experimental data. In one of the experiments, where the drop-test was performed twice, an average maximum force on the screw was measured to be 33.5+-4.8 kN. Simulations of the same case, under the same conditions, using beam elements resulted in a maximum force on the screw of 35.4 kN, well within the experimental result range. In the other two drop-tower experiments, the simulated results showed correlation considering the error sources in the simulation model and the statistical spread that is present in the experimental results. The simulation model using beam elements is also similar to the results using solid elements, which also indicates that the beam model is valid. All in all, it is shown that the beam model can be used to produce safe results that either overestimate or place the simulations of the axial force in the screw in the upper spread of the measurements.