Dans le cadre du développement de nuances d’aciers toujours plus performantes en termes de résistance à l’effort et à l’endommagement, les aciers Dual-Phase (DP) présentent un bon compromis résistance/ductilité. Cependant, il est nécessaire de disposer de meilleures connaissances concernant les mécanismes menant à la rupture de tels aciers. Les mécanismes d’endommagement ont ainsi été étudiés dans cette thèse à l’aide de la tomographie aux rayons X. Des essais de traction in-situ ont été réalisés sur plusieurs nuances d’aciers DP, un acier ferritique et un acier martensitique afin de caractériser chaque étape de l’endommagement ductile. Des observations qualitatives et des données quantitatives concernant la germination de l’endommagement, la croissance des cavités et la coalescence ont été recueillies lors de ces essais. Ces données quantitatives ont ensuite été utilisées pour le développement et/ou la validation de modèles d’endommagement. Une prédiction de la cinétique de germination a ainsi été proposée et la version du modèle de croissance de cavités de Rice et Tracey corrigée par Huang et prenant mieux en compte l’effet de la triaxialité a été validée expérimentalement. L’étape de coalescence des cavités menant à la rupture des matériaux a pour la première fois été caractérisée de façon quantitative dans un matériau industriel et des critères de coalescence ont été appliqués localement sur les couples de cavités présentes dans le matériau. L’utilisation de ces modèles analytiques a permis une meilleure compréhension des propriétés agissant sur les phénomènes mis en jeu. L’effet de la part cinématique de l’écrouissage sur la germination et la croissance de l’endommagement a notamment été souligné et validé par des essais de chargements complexes. / As part of the current context of requiring ever more efficient grades of steels in terms of resistance to stress and to damage, the Dual-Phase steels (DP) present an acceptable strength/ductility compromise. It is nevertheless necessary to have a better understanding of the mechanisms leading to the fracture of such steels. Damage mechanisms were studied in this PhD using X-ray tomography. In-situ tensile tests were carried out on several grades of DP steel, a ferritic steel and a martensitic steel in order to characterize each step of ductile damage. Qualitative observations and quantitative data on the nucleation of damage, the void growth and the coalescence of cavities were collected during these tests. This quantitative data was then used for the development and/or the validation of damage models. A prediction of the kinetic of nucleation was proposed and the Huang’s correction of the void growth model of Rice and Tracey accounting for the triaxiality was experimentally validated. For the first time, the step of void coalescence leading to fracture of materials was quantitatively characterized in an industrial material and coalescence criteria were locally applied on couples of neighboring cavities present in the studied specimen. The use of analytical models enabled a better understanding of the properties influencing the studied damage phenomena. The effect of the kinematic part of the strain hardening on void nucleation and void growth was notably emphasized and validated by performing complex loading tests.

The failure mechanism in ductile materials involves void nucleation, their growth and subsequent coalescence to form the fracture surface. The voids are generated due to fracture or debonding of second phase particles or at slip band intersections. The triaxial stress field prevailing around a crack tip and in the necking region strongly influences the growth of these voids. In the initial stages of deformation, these microscale voids are often sufficiently small so that they exist entirely within a single grain of a polycrystalline material. Further, single crystals are used in high technology applications like turbine blades. This motivates the need to study void growth in a single crystal while investigating ductile fracture. Thus, the objectives of this work are to analyze the interaction between a notch tip and void as well as the growth and coalescence of a periodic array of voids under different states of stress in ductile FCC single crystals. First, the growth of a cylindrical void ahead of a notch tip in ductile FCC single crystals is studied. To this end, 2D plane strain finite element simulations are carried out under mode I, small scale yielding conditions, neglecting elastic anisotropy. In most of these computations, the orientation of the FCC single crystal is chosen so that notch lies in the (010) plane, with notch front along the [101] direction and potential crack growth along [101]. This orientation has been frequently observed in experimental studies on fracture of FCC single crystals. Three equivalent slip systems are considered which are deduced by combining three pairs of 3D conjugate slip systems producing only in-plane deformation. Attention is focused on the effects of crystal hardening, ratio of void diameter to spacing from the notch on plastic flow localization in the ligament connecting the notch and the void as well as their growth. The results show strong interaction between slip shear bands emanating from the notch and angular sectors of single slip forming around the void leading to intense plastic strain development in the ligament. However, the ductile fracture processes are retarded by increase in hardening of the single crystal and decrease in ratio of void diameter to spacing from the notch. In order to examine the effect of crystal orientation, computations are performed with an orientation wherein the three effective slip systems are rotated about the normal to the plane of deformation. A strong influence of crystal orientation on near-tip void growth and plastic slip band development is observed. Further, in order to study the synergistic, cooperative growth of multiple voids ahead of the notchtip, an analysis is performed by considering a series of voids located ahead of the tip. It is found that enhanced void growth occurs at higher load levels as compared to the single void model. Next, the growth and coalescence of a periodic array of cylindrical voids in a FCC single crystal is analyzed under different stress states by employing a 2D plane strain, unit cell approach. The orientation of the crystal studied here considers [101] and [010] crystal directions along the minor and major principal stress directions, respectively. Three equivalent slip systems, similar to those in the notch and void simulations are taken into account. Fringe contours of plastic slip and evolution of macroscopic hydrostatic stress and void volume fraction are examined. A criterion for unstable void growth which leads to onset of void coalescence is established. The effects of various stress triaxialities, initial void volume fraction and hardening on void growth and coalescence is assessed. It is observed that plastic slip activity around the void intensifies with increase in stress triaxiality. The macroscopic hydrostatic stress increases with deformation, reaches a peak value and subsequently decreases rapidly. An increase in stress triaxiality enhances the macroscopic hydrostatic stress sustained by the unit cell and promotes void coalescence. The stress triaxiality also has a profound effect on the shape of the void profile. The values of critical void volume fraction and critical strain, which mark onset of void coalescence, decrease within crease in stress triaxiality. However, the onset of void coalescence is delayed by increase in hardening and decrease initial void volume fraction.

Global competition is pushing the composites industry to advance and become more cost effective. Liquid Composite Molding or LCM is a family of processes that has shown significant promise in its potential to reduce process times and cost while maintaining high levels of part quality. However, the majority of research and information on composite processes have been related to prepreg-autoclave processing which is significantly different than LCM. In order for LCM processes to gain large scale implementation, significant research is required in order to model and simulate the unique nature of the resin infusion process. The purpose of this research is to aid in the development of in situ void measurement and characterization during LCM processing, particularly for carbon fiber composites. This will allow for the gathering of important empirical data for the validation of models and simulations that aid in the understanding of void formation and movement during LCM. For such data to be useful, it needs to include details on the formation, mobility and evolution of the void over time during infusion. This was accomplished by creating a methodology that allowed for in situ images of voids to be captured during the infusion process. A clear mold was used to visually monitor infusions during RTM with UV dye and lighting to enhance contrast. Consecutive images were acquired through the use of macro lens photography. This method proved capable of yielding high quality images of a variety of in situ voids during infusions with carbon fiber composites. This is believed to be the first instance where this was accomplished. A second methodology was then developed for the analysis of the collected images. This was done by using ImageJ software to analyze and process the acquired images in order to identify and characterize the voids. Success was found in quantifying the size and circularity of a wide range of micro and macrovoids in both a satin weave and double bias NCF woven fabrics. To facilitate the burden of collecting large amounts of data, this process was made to be automated. A user generated macro script could be applied to large sets of images for rapid processing and analysis. This automated method was then evaluated against manually processed images to determine its overall effectiveness and accuracy as tool for validating void theory.

The industrial application of high strength steels in structural components has increased the demand on understanding the ductile failure behavior of this type of materials. In practical situations the loading experienced on components made out of these materials can be very complex, which may affect the failure behavior. The objective of this work is to study the effect of stress state on ductile failure and the mechanisms leading to rupture in high strength steels. The stress state is characterized by the stress triaxiality T and the Lode parameter L, which is a deviatoric stress state parameter that discriminates between axisymmetric or shear dominated stress states. For this purpose experiments on two different specimen configurations are performed; a double notched tube (DNT) specimen tested in combined tension and shear and a round notched bar (RNB) specimen tested in uniaxial tension. The two specimens give rise to different stress states at failure in terms of T and L. The failure loci for the DNT specimen show an abrupt change in ductility, indicating a transition between the rupture mechanisms necking of intervoid ligaments and shearing of intervoid ligaments. A clear difference in ductility between the two specimen configurations is also observed, which is closely associated with the difference in stress state at failure. A micromechanical model is developed, which assumes that ductile material failure occurs when the deformation becomes highly non-linear and localizes into a band. The model, which is applied to analyze the experiments, consists of a band with a square array of equally sized cells, with a spherical void located in the center of each cell. The model, extended with a shear criterion, captures the experimental trend rather well. The model also shows that the effect of the deviatoric stress state (L) on void growth, void shape evolution and coalescence is significant, especially at low levels of T and shear dominated stress state. / QC 20100621

L'endommagement des matériaux ductiles est un processus impliquant trois étapes : la nucléation, la croissance et la coalescence de vides. La phase de croissance des vides a été largement étudiée dans la littérature. Il a été montré que, durant cette étape, la forme des vides joue un rôle fondamental sur le comportement macroscopique du matériau. Dans le cas de sollicitations dynamiques, les effets micro inertiels, qui résultent des accélérations subies par la matrice au voisinage du vide, influent eux aussi fortement sur la croissance des vides. Cependant, les travaux intégrant simultanément ces deux contributions (effets inertiels et forme) sont très rares. L'objectif de ce travail est de proposer un modèle de comportement pour les matériaux poreux qui prend en compte la forme des vides et les effets micro inertiels. Dans une première partie, un volume élémentaire représentatif défini par deux ellipsoïdes allongés confocaux est utilisé pour représenter le matériau poreux. La matrice est rigide viscoplastique. En se basant sur les travaux de Molinari et Mercier (2001), la contrainte macroscopique se décompose en une partie statique et une partie dynamique. La contrainte statique est décrite par le modèle de Gologanu et al. (1997). La contrainte dynamique est obtenue en adoptant le champ de vitesse de Gologanu et al. (1993). Avec cette modélisation, il est montré que la contrainte dynamique est liée de façon quadratique au tenseur des vitesses des déformations et de façon linéaire à sa dérivée par rapport au temps. Le modèle fait l'objet d'une validation sur la base de comparaisons avec des résultats de calculs par éléments finis. Différentes forme de vides et valeurs de la porosité ont été considérées. Dans une seconde partie, le cas de matériaux contenant des vides aplatis est abordé ; le volume élémentaire représentatif est défini par deux ellipsoïdes confocaux aplatis. La contrainte statique est toujours décrite par le modèle de Gologanu et al. (1997). La contrainte dynamique est obtenue en adoptant le champ de vitesse de Gologanu et al. (1994). La procédure de validation est identique à celle mise en œuvre dans le cas des vides allongés. Une bonne adéquation entre les résultats du modèle et les résultats de calculs par éléments finis est retrouvée. L'utilisation des surfaces d'écoulement permet de mettre en lumière les effets de la forme des vides sur le comportement du matériau poreux sous chargement dynamique. En fonction du chargement appliqué, certaines géométries de vide favorisent la déformation du matériau. Le cas particulier du vide sphérique est étudié comme limite des deux modèles. La continuité des deux modèles est démontrée. L'évolution de la porosité et de la forme des vides dans un matériau poreux sous chargement dynamique est analysée. Des comparaisons avec des résultats de simulations par éléments finis sont proposées. L'influence de la triaxialité et de la vitesse du chargement sur le comportement dynamique du matériau poreux est étudiée, ainsi que celle de la forme initiale du vide. Au final, il est démontré que le modèle développé dans cette thèse permet de retrouver les tendances fournies par les calculs éléments finis / The ductile fracture mechanism involves three stages: void nucleation, void growth and void coalescence. Under dynamic loading conditions, void growth is strongly affected by microinertia effects resulting from the local acceleration of the matrix material in the vicinity of the void. Several works devoted to quasi-static conditions also show that void shape has a strong impact on the behavior of porous ductile materials. However, there exist only few works considering the combined effect of these two contributions. In the present work, we propose an original, multi-scale constitutive model of porous materials, taking into account void shape and micro-inertia effects. In a first step, a representative volume element defined by two confocal prolate spheroids is used to represent the porous material. The matrix behavior is assumed to be rigid-viscoplastic. Based on the work of Molinari and Mercier (2001), the macroscopic stress is the sum of a static and a dynamic part. The static contribution is described by the Gologanu et al. model (1997). The dynamic stress is derived by choosing the trial velocity field proposed by Gologanu et al. (1993). With the present modeling, a link is established between the macroscopic dynamic stress, on the one hand and, the macroscopic strain rate tensor and its time derivative on the other hand. To validate the proposed model, finite element computations have been performed for different void geometries and void volume fractions. The influence of micro-inertia on the macroscopic flow surface is analyzed and a good agreement between modeling and simulations is observed. In a second step, a representative volume element defined by two confocal oblate spheroids is used to represent the porous material. For this configuration, the static contribution is also described by using the Gologanu et al. model (1997), while the derivation of the dynamic stress is based on the trial velocity field proposed by Gologanu et al. (1994). As for the prolate case, a good agreement is retrieved between model predictions and results of finite element computations. The spherical void configuration is investigated as the limit case for the oblate and prolate models. The continuity between the two models is established. Finally, the proposed models are combined to investigate the porosity and void shape evolutions in a porous solid under dynamic loadings. A parametric study has been performed by varying the stress triaxiality, the initial void shape and the loading rate. Significant void shape variations are observed for low triaxiality loadings. With the present modeling, the void can evolve from prolate to oblate shapes (and the reverse). Model predictions are compared to finite element computations

any experiments demonstrate that isotropic ductile materials used in engineering applications develop anisotropic damage and shows significant variation in elongation to failure. This anisotropic damage is manifest by material microstructural heterogeneities and morphological changes during deformation. The variation in elongation to the failure could be attributed to the uncertainties in the material microstructure and loading conditions. To study this deformation induced anisotropy arising from the initial material heterogeneities, we first performed uncertainty analysis using current form on an internal state variable plasticity and isotropic damage model (Bammann, 1984; Horstemeyer, 2001) to quantify the effect due to variations in material microstructure and loading conditions on elongation to failure. We extend the current isotropic damage form of theory into an anisotropic damage form for ductile material in which material heterogeneities are introduced based on damage distribution functions converted into a damage tensor of second rank. The outcome of this research is a physically motivated, uncertainty-based, anisotropic damage constitutive model that links microstructural features to mechanical properties. This was accomplished by pursuing three sub goals: (1) develop and quantify uncertainty related to material heterogeneities, (2) develop a methodology related to a higher order tensorial rank of damage for void nucleation and void growth, and (3) integrate thermodynamically constrained damage with a rate dependent plasticity constitutive material model. Later, we also proposed a new ISV theory that physically and strongly couples deformation due to damage-related internal defects to metal plasticity.

Thesis (MScEng (Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / Inspired by Sigmund’s 99-line MATLAB code for minimum compliance (maximum stiffness) topology optimisation, this thesis presents an open source software (OSS) version developed in Python, denoted ToPy. ToPy extends the 99-line code of Sigmund in a number of ways. Firstly, ToPy can solve three different problem types, namely minimum compliance, heat conduction and mechanism synthesis, in two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) space. This is accomplished by simply changing an input file. Secondly, by using established open source software (Pysparse and its iterative solver) for solving the sparse finite element (FE) systems of equations, the ToPy code provides improved speed and scalability. ToPy also provides for grey-scale filtering (GSF) to yield predominantly, or even purely, solid-void or black-and-white designs in 2D and 3D space. In addition, an exponential approximation to the objective function is implemented. This approximation is a generalisation of the reciprocal approximation so popular in structural optimisation; the values of the exponents may be based on gradient information in previously visited iterates, or fixed exponents may be prescribed, in the spirit of optimality criterion (OC) methods. As a further generalisation, the diagonal quadratic approximation to the exponential approximation in an SAO setting is also implemented. What is more: the diagonal quadratic approximation to the exponential approximation was successfully used in combination with GSF. This is a novelty of some importance as it was previously suggested that GSF can only be used in combination with strictly monotonic objective functions, like the reciprocal approximation.

Gas lift is a means of enhancing oil recovery from hydrocarbon reservoirs. Gas injected at the production riser base reduces the gravity component of the pressure drop and thereby, increases the supply of oil from the reservoir. Also, gas injection at the base of a riser helps to mitigate slugging and thus, improving the performance of the topside facility. In order to improve the efficiency of the gas lifting technique, a good understanding of the characteristics of gas-liquid multiphase flow in vertical pipes is very important. In this study, experiments of gas/liquid (air/water) two-phase flows, liquid/liquid of oil/water two-phase flows and gas/liquid/liquid (air/oil/water) three-phase flows were conducted in a 10.5 m high 52 mm ID vertical riser. These experiments were performed at liquid and gas superficial velocities ranging from 0.25 to 2 m/s and ~0.1 to ~6.30 m/s, respectively. Dielectric oil and tap water were used as test fluids. Instruments such as Coriolis mass flow meter, single beam gamma densitometer and wire-mesh sensor (WMS) were employed for investigating the flow characteristics. For the experiments of gas/liquid (air/water) two-phase flow, flow patterns of Bubbly, slug, churn flow regimes and transition regions were identified under the experimental conditions. Also, for flow pattern identification and void fraction measurements, the capacitance WMS results are consistent with those obtained simultaneously by the gamma densitometer. Generally, the total pressure gradient along the vertical riser has shown a significant decrease as the injected gas superficial velocity increased. In addition, the rate of decrease in total pressure gradient at the lower injected gas superficial velocities was found to be higher than that for higher gas superficial velocities. The frictional pressure gradient was also found to increase as the injected gas superficial velocity increased. For oil-water experiments, mixture density and total pressure gradient across the riser were found to increase with increasing water cut (ranging between 0 - 100%) and/or mixture superficial velocity. Phase slip between the oil and water was calculated and found to be significant at lower throughputs of 0.25 and 0.5 m/s. The phase inversion point always takes place at a point of input water cut of 42% when the experiments started from pure oil to water, and at an input water cut of 45% when the experiment’s route started from water to pure oil. The phase inversion point was accompanied by a peak increase of pressure gradient, particularly at higher oil-water mixture superficial velocities of 1, 1.5 and 2 m/s. The effects of air injection rates on the fluid flow characteristics were studied by emphasizing the total pressure gradient behaviour and identifying the flow pattern by analysing the output signals from gamma and WMS in air/oil/water experiments. Generally, riser base gas injection does not affect the water cut at the phase inversion point. However, a slight shift forward for the identified phase inversion point was found at highest flow rates of injected gas where the flow patterns were indicated as churn to annular flow. In terms of pressure gradient, the gas lifting efficiency (lowering pressure gradient) shows greater improvement after the phase inversion point (higher water cuts) than before and also at the inversion point. Also, it was found that the measured mean void fraction reaches its lowest value at the phase inversion point. These void fraction results were found to be consistent with previously published results.

In order to resolve the Al void formation originated from the severe stress issues in dynamic random access memory (DRAM), double-deposited-aluminum (DDA) layer process was proposed. This novel metallization process can be effectively and simply performed with the native oxide such as Al 2 O 3 between upper and lower Al metal layer by ex-situ deposition technique. We could effectively control the Al void by adapting the DDA layers with different grain structure. From this novel metallization process, we have confirmed the optimal thickness of Al barrier metal to 100Å to be free from Al voids, which makes it possible to improve the static refresh characteristics of DRAM by 17%.

Multiphase flows occurring in pipelines with a serpentine configuration is an important phenomenon, which can be encountered in heat exchangers used in a variety of industrial processes. More specifically, in many industrial units such as a large cracking furnace in a refinery, the tubes are arranged in a serpentine manner and are relatively short. As flow negotiates round the 180o bend at the ends of the tubes, the generated centrifugal force could cause flow maldistribution creating local dry spots, where no steady liquid film is formed on the adjacent straight sections of the pipe. As a result, events including coking, cracking and overheating of heat transfer surfaces may occur and lead to frequent shutdown of the facilities. Consequently, this could increase operating costs and reduce production revenue. Thus, it is desirable to know the effect that the bends exert on the flow in the straight part of the pipe. Apart from this, knowledge of the bend effects on the flows in the pipeline could also be important for the design of other pipelines for gas/liquid transport, e.g. offshore gas and oil pipelines. Quite a large number of studies have been found in the literature. The majority of them were for two-phase flow with small diameter pipes (i.d. ≤ 50 mm). However, studies with large diameter pipes (i.d. ≥ 100 mm), have increasingly been considered in recent years as problems related to large diameter vertical pipes are being encountered more and more often in industrial situations. This thesis studies the effect of 180o bends on the characteristics and development of gas-liquid two-phase flows in large diameter downward and upward pipes. The study particularly focuses on the influence of serpentine configuration on flow structure, cross-sectional void distribution and circumferential liquid film profiles and their development along the downward and upward sections. It was found that both the top and bottom bends have considerable impacts on flow behaviour, although to varying degrees. These impacts were highly dependent on the air and water flow rates. For sufficient flow rates, the bends were observed to create flow maldistribution in the adjacent straight section, due to the effects of centrifugal force. The air moved towards the inner zone of the bend and the water towards the outer zone, while a lesser quantity of water was identified on the other surfaces of the pipe. Investigation of the film thickness development in the downward and upward sections showed that, the liquid film behaviour close to the bends was significantly different from those located further away. This can be attributed to the centrifugal force of the bends. Examination of the power spectral density (PSD) along the downward and upward sections showed that, the shape of PSD located in the adjacent section to the bends, was substantially different from those located further away. Furthermore, several flow regime maps were generated which showed that, in addition to bubbly, intermittent and annular flows, unstable flows existed along the upward section, particularly for low gas and water flow rates. In this study it was found that, the lower bend was periodically blocked by the liquid and then blown through by the accumulated air. The data obtained from this study were compared with different theoretical correlations found in the existing literature. Some discrepancy between the results of the current study and those of previous published materials was noted. Updated correlations were presented which provided well results when they applied for the data obtained from the current study and previous studies.