A research study has been conducted to simulate liquefaction in saturated sandy soil induced by nearby controlled blasts. The purpose of the study is to help quantify soil characteristics under multiple and consecutive high-magnitude shock environments similar to those produced by large earthquakes. The simulation procedure involved the modeling of a three-dimensional half-space soil region with pre-defined, embedded, and strategically located explosive charges to be detonated at specific time intervals. LS-DYNA, a commercially available finite element hydrocode, was the solver used to simulate the event. A new geo-material model developed under the direction of the U.S. Federal Highway Administration was applied to evaluate the liquefaction potential of saturated sandy soil subjected to sequential blast environments. Additional procedural enhancements were integrated into the analysis process to represent volumetric effects of the saturated soil's transition from solid to liquid during the liquefaction process. Explosive charge detonation and pressure development characteristics were modeled using proven and accepted modeling techniques. As explosive charges were detonated in a pre-defined order, development of pore water pressure, volumetric (compressive) strains, shear strains, and particle accelerations were carefully computed and monitored using custom developed MathCad and C/C++ routines. Results of the study were compared against blast-test data gathered at the Fraser River Delta region of Vancouver, British Columbia in May of 2005 to validate and verify the modeling procedure's ability to simulate and predict blast-induced liquefaction events. Reasonable correlations between predicted and measured data were observed from the study.

Reliability of integrated circuit (IC) packages is in great demand for the automotive industry, as they are used in almost every electronic components. IC packages consist of essentially molding compound (MC), lead frame (LF), adhesive and a silicon chip. The elastic mismatch between the components makes the interfaces susceptible to crack initiation, propagation and eventual failure. The main reason of the failure is the thermo-mechanical cycles during the service time. This work presents the robustness estimation and the reliability based robustness improvement of an IC package by minimization of both crack driving force and its standard deviation at the MC and the LF interface with respect to the fatigue fracture toughness. The robustness evaluation and robust design optimization were performed by taking the uncertainty in geometrical parameters into account. Evidently, there are more robust and reliable designs than the current design which have less crack driving force and show less variation. In order to quantify the reliability with respect to the variation of the crack driving force, the fatigue fracture toughness of the interface was characterized under isothermal conditions at 25 ◦C and −40 ◦C with a three point bending test apparatus. The interface characterizations at low temperatures like −40 ◦C is a main concern due to large stress generation during the reliability tests. After then, a test methodology was prepared to validate the fatigue fracture toughness of the interface in the package level. Artificial cracks were introduced at the MC-LF interface in IC packages to predict the crack growth under thermal cycling over a temperature range of −50 ◦C to 150 ◦C. A prediction quality assisted to validate, whether the fatigue fracture toughness, which was obtained mechanically under isothermal conditions, could be used to predict the crack growth in the IC package under thermo-mechanical cycles. Material characterization of the MC and the LF was performed to acquire the fatigue fracture toughness and the crack length by the compliance calibration method as accurate as possible. The mechanical modeling of both materials was accomplished with elasticity plus plasticity at the room temperature. Then the material models were verified by using the behavior of the bi-material structure under three point bending. As the numerical simulations were used to calculate the fracture toughness, this thesis also presents a comparison between the methods in the literature by using finite element simulations. The results were compared with the analytic solution according to their accuracy, ease of implementation and mesh independence. Simultaneously, various crack tip elements were analyzed in contrast considering their capability of fracture toughness calculation. The analyses were included different fracture mechanical concepts from linear elastic to elastic plastic fracture mechanics. The comparison led to a more convenient method and crack tip element preference for the interface characterization.

Although it offers a wide variety of interesting properties such as fire resistance or durability, stainless steel has been used in limited amount in structures. It is a known fact that the design rules don't properly account for the additional benefits of stainless steel properties and are largely based on the specifications for carbon steel. Indeed, a number of similarities exist between stainless steel and ordinary carbon steel but there is sufficient differences to afford a specific treatment in design standards. And since stainless steel is an expensive material, it is important to accurately predict the resistance of structural members. The present research work is dedicated to the study of cold-formed stainless steel profiles. It actually follows the life of a stainless steel construction element and falls on three fundamental topics: the material behavior, the through-thickness residual stress distribution and mechanical enhancement due to the cold-forming process and, last, the strength of concentrically compressed thin-walled columns. Firstly, several constitutive models are characterized such as Teodosiu-Hu's micro-structural based hardening model, capable of predicting the behavior of the studied stainless steel grade submitted to biaxial loading causing plastic strain. This model accounts for the nonlinear hardening behavior, the anisotropy, the Bauschinger effect and more complex behavior such as the observed work-hardening stagnation under reversed deformation at large strains. For this purpose, a collection of tests is carried out including multiaxial tests such as tensile-shear tests and successive simple shear tests and plane-strain tests. Secondly, the effects of the forming process on the mechanical properties are studied. To begin with, on the basis of the constitutive models developed previously, an analytical method that calculates the biaxial residual stress distribution in the walls and in the corners of cold-formed profiles is established. Based on the conclusions drawn from this theoretical analysis, a new formula for the evaluation of the actual mechanical properties is established. This formula is not restricted to a single alloy or type of cross-section. Current design standards are then used to calculate the strength of lipped-channel section columns failing by combined distortional and overall flexural-torsional buckling and the results are compared to tests. Indeed, full-scale tests on cold-formed stainless steel lipped channel section columns were achieved in the Structures Laboratory of the University of Liège. And, once verified against the test results, finite element models were used to generate additional results when necessary. The author then presents a new Direct Strength Method taking into account this phenomenon. Finally, a wide amount of reference results are gathered from the literature, without limiting oneself to any kind of cross-section or stainless steel grade. This database is used to propose an improved formulation for the design of stainless steel thin-walled section columns failing by distortion, local or combination of local and overall buckling in the low slenderness range.

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