<p align='justify'>This thesis is devoted to the micromechanical study of the size-dependent strengthening in Transformation Induced Plasticity (TRIP) steels. Such grades of advanced high-strength steels are compelling for the automotive industry, due to their improved mechanical properties. Among others, they combine a good strength versus ductility balance. In this context, many research works have been carried out to study these grades of steels. In particular, from a numerical point of view, earlier studies within the framework of classical plasticity do not properly reproduce the strengthening levels characterizing TRIP steels and obtained experimentally.</p> <p><p align='justify'>In this study, the strain gradient plasticity theory presented by Fleck and Hutchinson (2001) is chosen to account for the strengthening effect resulting from the phase transformation. A two-dimensional embedded cell model of a simplified microstructure composed of small cylindrical metastable austenitic inclusions, partially undergoing the phase transformation, within a ferritic matrix is used.</p><p><p align='justify'>First, the single-parameter version of the strain gradient plasticity theory under small strain assumption is used for the simulations. The impact of the higher order boundary conditions is assessed. It is shown that, when the plastic flow is unconstrained at the elasto-plastic boundaries, the transformation strain has no significant impact on the overall strengthening. The strengthening is essentially coming from the composite effect with a marked inclusion size effect resulting from the appearance during deformation of new boundaries (at the interface between parent and product phases) constraining the plastic flow.</p><p><p align='justify'>Second, the multi-parameter version of the strain gradient plasticity theory, incorporating separately the rotational and extensional gradients in the formulation, is employed under small strain assumption. The effect of the plastic strain gradients resulting from the transformation strain is better captured. In particular, the results show a significant influence of the shear component of the transformation strain. An implicit confinement effect is revealed at the elasto-plastic boundaries which is partly responsible for the transformation strain effect. Size effects on the overall strengthening are also revealed, due to a combined size dependent effect of the transformation strain and of the evolving composite structure.</p><p align='justify'>Third, the extension of the strain gradient plasticity theory to a finite strain description is applied. A significant effect of the transformation strain is obtained with the multi-parameter version of the theory as well as an optimal austenite grain size improving the damage resistance of the martensite, in agreement with the typical grain size of the current TRIP-assisted steels (Jacques et al. 2007).</p> / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

<p align="justify">The conservation of structures of the historical heritage is an increasing concern nowadays for public authorities. The technical design phase of repair operations for these structures is of prime importance. Such operations usually require an estimation of the residual strength and of the potential structural failure modes of structures to optimize the choice of the repairing techniques.</p> <p><p align="justify">Although rules of thumb and codes are widely used, numerical simulations now start to emerge as valuable tools. Such alternative methods may be useful in this respect only if they are able to account realistically for the possibly complex failure modes of masonry in structural applications.</p><p><p align="justify">The mechanical behaviour of masonry is characterized by the properties of its constituents (bricks and mortar joints) and their stacking mode. Structural failure mechanisms are strongly connected to the mesostructure of the material, with strong localization and damage-induced anisotropy.</p><p><p align="justify">The currently available numerical tools for this material are mostly based on approaches incorporating only one scale of representation. Mesoscopic models are used in order to study structural details with an explicit representation of the constituents and of their behaviour. The range of applicability of these descriptions is however restricted by computational costs. At the other end of the spectrum, macroscopic descriptions used in structural computations rely on phenomenological constitutive laws representing the collective behaviour of the constituents. As a result, these macroscopic models are difficult to identify and sometimes lead to wrong failure mode predictions.</p><p><p align="justify">The purpose of this study is to bridge the gap between mesoscopic and macroscopic representations and to propose a computational methodology for the analysis of plane masonry walls. To overcome the drawbacks of existing approaches, a multi-scale framework is used which allows to include mesoscopic behaviour features in macroscopic descriptions, without the need for an a priori postulated macroscopic constitutive law. First, a mesoscopic constitutive description is defined for the quasi-brittle constituents of the masonry material, the failure of which mainly occurs through stiffness degradation. The mesoscopic description is therefore based on a scalar damage model. Plane stress and generalized plane state assumptions are used at the mesoscopic scale, leading to two-dimensional macroscopic continuum descriptions. Based on periodic homogenization techniques and unit cell computations, it is shown that the identified mesoscopic constitutive setting allows to reproduce the characteristic shape of (anisotropic) failure envelopes observed experimentally. The failure modes corresponding to various macroscopic loading directions are also shown to be correctly captured. The in-plane failure mechanisms are correctly represented by a plane stress description, while the generalized plane state assumption, introducing simplified three-dimensional effects, is shown to be needed to represent out-of-plane failure under biaxial compressive loading. Macroscopic damage-induced anisotropy resulting from the constituents' stacking mode in the material, which is complex to represent properly using macroscopic phenomenological constitutive equations, is here obtained in a natural fashion. The identified mesoscopic description is introduced in a scale transition procedure to infer the macroscopic response of the material. The first-order computational homogenization technique is used for this purpose to extract this response from unit cells. Damage localization eventually appears as a natural outcome of the quasi-brittle nature of the constituents. The onset of macroscopic localization is treated as a material bifurcation phenomenon and is detected from an eigenvalue analysis of the homogenized acoustic tensor obtained from the scale transition procedure together with a limit point criterion. The macroscopic localization orientations obtained with this type of detection are shown to be strongly related to the underlying mesostructural failure modes in the unit cells.</p> <p><p align="justify">A well-posed macroscopic description is preserved by embedding localization bands at the macroscopic localization onset, with a width directly deduced from the initial periodicity of the mesostructure of the material. This allows to take into account the finite size of the fracturing zone in the macroscopic description. As a result of mesoscopic damage localization in narrow zones of the order of a mortar joint, the material response computationally deduced from unit cells may exhibit a snap-back behaviour. This precludes the use of such a response in the standard strain-driven multi-scale scheme.</p> <p><p align="justify">Adaptations of the multi-scale framework required to treat the mesostructural response snap-back are proposed. This multi-scale framework is finally applied for a typical confined shear wall problem, which allows to verify its ability to represent complex structural failure modes.</p><p> / Doctorat en sciences appliquées / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Aujourd’hui, la technologie du béton ayant fortement évolué, il est, sous certaines conditions, réaliste de construire des éléments structuraux en béton ayant à la compression une résistance de 90N/mm² voire nettement plus. En conséquence, l’ingénieur concepteur peut être amené dans le cadre du dimensionnement des colonnes à en diminuer les dimensions transversales pour des raisons esthétiques ou d’encombrement. <p><p>Inévitablement, cette diminution de la section transversale induit une augmentation de l’élancement et augmente ainsi les risques des instabilités de flambement. <p>A cette question de flambement, il faut adjoindre l’influence d’une préconception qui veut qu’une structure en béton à haute résistance soit moins ductile qu’une structure construite avec un béton normal !De ceci résulte la question à la base de ce travail :<p><p>« Peut-on arriver à diminuer la section transversale d’une colonne en utilisant des résistances de béton plus élevées tout en imposant la même valeur de capacité portante et en ne réduisant pas leur ductilité ?»<p><p>Afin de répondre à cette question, le travail s’est articulé autour de deux axes essentiels qui sont d’une part une campagne d’essais (afin d’obtenir des résultats fiables) sur 12 colonnes en béton armé à haute résistance (90N/mm²) d’élancement 74 et 82 dont l’excentricité de la charge est une variable, et d’autre part l’implémen- tation de deux programmes informa- tiques utilisant le principe de l’analyse au second ordre en vue de réaliser une étude paramétrique dont l’excentricité, la hauteur des colonnes, la proportion d’acier, la résistance du béton sont les variables.<p><p>Trop souvent encore, les ingénieurs de bureau d’études hésitent à effectuer un calcul au second ordre et placés devant la question des dimensions de section à donner à une colonne de hauteur et de capacité portante imposées, déterminent celles-ci pour se satisfaire d’un calcul au 1er ordre. Au terme de notre étude, nous avons montré que cette approche est loin d’être optimale, qu’il est possible, au prix d’un calcul au second ordre (mais il est fait à l’ordinateur), de tirer profit d’une augmentation de la résistance du béton pour réduire les dimensions des sections et aboutir en toute sécurité à un dimensionnement plus économique en consommation de matériaux (acier, béton, ciment).<p><p> / Doctorat en sciences appliquées / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The aim of this thesis is to assess the time-dependent behavior of a new kind of composite railway bridge deck composed by two precambered and prestressed beams. The method used until now to design these bridge decks is a simple classical computation method with a variable modular ratio. They have been placed only with simply supported spans up to 26 m.<p>It is now considered to apply this construction method for the building of continuous bridges (with larger spans) by connecting simply supported decks on their supports. It is known that this kind of construction will induce an additional and strong time-dependent redistribution of internal forces within the structure. It was felt that an in-depth understanding of the influence of the concrete time-dependent effects in this kind of composite structures is needed before proceeding with the design of statically indeterminate bridges. Two cross-section analysis programs applying the principle of superposition were developed: the first used the age adjusted effective modulus method and the second the step-by-step method. However, it is known that the delayed behavior of concrete does not fully comply with the principle of superposition. It appears that after a period of compression creep, creep recovery is significantly less than predicted by the superposition principle. In the construction phases of this bridge deck, the concrete fibers belonging to the bottom side of prestressed beams undergo a stress/strain history of significant unloading when the permanent loads are applied step-by-step. Moreover, these methods assume that the relative humidity remains constant. Finally, a lot of bridge decks are heated in order to transfer the prestressing as soon as possible. To evaluate more finely the time-dependent effects of concrete in such composite (and rather complex) structures with variable loading history, several steps have been carried out: <p>-Analysis of the influence of the heat treatment applied in the workshop and the level of applied stress on the creep and the shrinkage of the concrete.<p>-Analysis of the recovery phenomenon of the concrete resulting in the selection of the two-function method with the recovery function proposed by Yue and Taerwe.<p>-Development of a cross-section analysis program applying the two-function method to take into account more finely the recovery phenomenon, what resulted in a optimization of the phases of construction of the bridge decks by decreasing the minimum age of concrete before prestressing from 40 hours to 20 hours. <p>-Development of a structural analysis program with beam finite elements and applying the two-function method,what has resulted in an optimization of the phases of construction of continuous bridges composed by the junction of two bridge decks. <p>-Proposition of a modelling based on the understanding of the physico-chemical phenomenona which are at the origin of the delayed effects and coupled to a local analysis of the evolution of the degree of hydration and the internal relative humidity in order to take into account the changes of the boundaries conditions in terms of heat and moisture exchanges occurring along the construction history of the bridge decks in the evaluation of their long-term behavior. For each component of the delayed strains (the thermal strain, the autogenous shrinkage, the desiccation shrinkage, the desiccation creep, the basic creep), a modelling has been proposed.<p>-Development of a cross-section analysis program based on the numerically stable algorithm with increasing time steps for integral-type aging creep proposed by Bažant and including the different components of the delayed effects according to the proposed modelling.<p>The results seem to be very promising since it was possible to reproduce in a more realistic way the evolutions of the measured strains of the composite railway bridge deck instrumented in June 2000 and situated near Brussels South Station. <p><p><p>L’objectif de cette thèse est de prédire le comportement à long terme de structure mixte type pont-bac composée de poutres préfléchies, précontraintes et construites par phases. A l’heure actuelle, ils sont dimensionnés à l’état limite de service par une méthode traditionnelle pseudo-élastique avec un coefficient d’équivalence acier-béton variable. Il est envisagé d’étendre ce type de construction à la réalisation de viaducs hyperstatiques permettant de franchir de plus grandes portées en établissant une continuité entre deux travées au droit de leur support commun. Il est connu que ce type de construction induit une importante redistribution des efforts internes dans la structure. Il est donc indispensable d’évaluer très finement l’influence des effets différés du béton sur ce type de construction. Deux programmes généraux d’analyse de section basés sur la méthode du module effectif ajusté et la méthode pas-à-pas ont tout d’abord été développés. Ces méthodes appliquent le principe de superposition. Des limitations propres à ces méthodes ont été relevées pour des historiques où le béton subit plusieurs déchargements significatifs par rapport à son état de contrainte initial juste après le transfert de la précontrainte. Ces méthodes ont aussi l’inconvénient de supposer une humidité relative constante. Enfin,pour pouvoir être mis en précontrainte le plus tôt possible, les ponts-bacs sont chauffés. Les caractéristiques de retrait et de fluage s’écartent de celles déterminées en laboratoire sur des éprouvettes conservées à 20°C. Pour lever les limitations des méthodes classiques et évaluer plus finement l’état de contrainte et de déformation à long terme dans ce type de structure, plusieurs étapes ont été effectuées :<p>-Analyse de l’influence d’un traitement thermique appliqué dans les mêmes conditions que celles effectuées chez le préfabricant ainsi que du niveau de contrainte appliqué sur les déformations différées du béton. <p>-Analyse de l’influence de l’application de déchargements à des âges divers sur les éprouvettes de béton permettant de mettre en évidence le fait que la méthode dite aux deux fonctions avec la fonction de recouvrance proposée par Yue et Taerwe reproduit la plupart des résultats expérimentaux de manière très satisfaisante.<p>-Développement d’un programme d’analyse en section suivant la méthode pas-à-pas étendu à la méthode aux deux fonctions afin de mieux tenir compte de la recouvrance, ce qui a permis d’optimiser les phases de préfabrication des ponts-bacs en changeant l’instant de mise en précontrainte. Les simulations ont montré que si le béton du pont-bac est chauffé, la mise en précontrainte peut s’effectuer à 20 heures d’âge du béton. <p>-Développement d’un programme d’analyse de structure au moyen d’éléments finis de type poutre et dont l’algorithme de résolution applique la méthode aux deux fonctions, ce qui a permis d’optimiser les phases de construction de viaducs hyperstatiques constitués par la jonction de deux ponts-bacs. <p>-Proposition d’une modélisation fondée sur la compréhension des phénomènes physico-chimiques à l’origine des effets différés et couplée à une étude locale de l’évolution du degré d’hydratation et de la teneur en eau permettant de tenir compte des changements de conditions aux limites en terme d’échange de chaleur et d’humidité qui ont lieu au cours de l’histoire des ponts-bacs dans l’évaluation de leur comportement à long terme. Pour chaque composante des déformations différées (le retrait thermique, le retrait endogène, le retrait et le fluage de dessiccation, le fluage fondamental), une modélisation a été proposée.<p>-Développement d’un programme d’analyse de section basé sur une approche incrémentale avec l’algorithme récursif et exponentiel proposé par Bažant et dans lequel les composantes des effets différés ont été intégrées suivant la modélisation proposée. <p>Les résultats sont encourageants car ils ont permis de reproduire de manière beaucoup plus réaliste les évolutions des déformations mesurées dans le pont-bac instrumenté à Bruxelles. <p> / Doctorat en sciences appliquées / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished