Vibration analysis of periodic cellular solids based on an effective couple-stress continuum model

Cellular solids are usually treated as homogeneous continuums with effective properties. Nevertheless, these mechanical properties depend strongly on the ratio of the specimen size to the cell size. These size effects may be accounted for according to preliminary static analysis of effective continuums based on couple-stress theory. In this paper an effective dynamic continuum model, based on couple-stress theory, is proposed to analyze the behavior of free vibrations of periodic cellular solids. In this continuum model, the effective mechanical constants of the effective continuum are deduced by an equivalent energy method. The cellular solid structure is then replaced with the equivalent couple-stress continuum with same overall dimension and shape. Moreover, the finite element formulation of the couple-stress continuum for the generalized eigenvalue analysis is developed to implement the free vibration analysis. The eigenfrequencies of the effective continuum are then obtained via the shear beam theory or the finite element method. A conventional finite element analysis by discretizing each cell of the cellular solids is also carried out to serve as an exact solution. Several structural cases are calculated to demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed continuum model. Good agreement on structural eigenfrequencies between the effective continuum solutions and the exact solutions shows that the proposed continuum model can accurately simulate the dynamic behavior of the cellular solids.     

Generalized continuum modeling of 2-D periodic cellular solids

A generalized continuum representation of two-dimensional periodic cellular solids is obtained by treating these materials as micropolar continua. Linear elastic micropolar constants are obtained using an energy approach for square, equilateral triangular, mixed triangle and diamond cell topologies. The constants are obtained by equating two different continuous approximations of the strain energy function. Furthermore, the effects of shear deformation of the cell walls on the micropolar elastic constants are also discussed. A continuum micropolar finite element approach is developed for numerical simulations of the cell structures. The solutions from the continuum representation are compared with the “exact” discrete simulations of these cell structures for a model problem of elastic indentation of a rectangular domain by a point force. The utility of the micropolar continuum representation is illustrated by comparing various cell structures with respect to the stress concentration factor at the root of a circular notch.     

Elastoplastic microscopic bifurcation and post-bifurcation behavior of periodic cellular solids

In this study, a general framework is developed to analyze microscopic bifurcation and post-bifurcation behavior of elastoplastic, periodic cellular solids. The framework is built on the basis of a two-scale theory, called a homogenization theory, of the updated Lagrangian type. We thus derive the eigenmode problem of microscopic bifurcation and the orthogonality to be satisfied by the eigenmodes. The orthogonality allows the macroscopic increments to be independent of the eigenmodes, resulting in a simple procedure of the elastoplastic post-bifurcation analysis based on the notion of comparison solids. By use of this framework, then, bifurcation and post-bifurcation analysis are performed for cell aggregates of an elastoplastic honeycomb subject to in-plane compression. Thus, demonstrating a basic, long-wave eigenmode of microscopic bifurcation under uniaxial compression, it is shown that the eigenmode has the longitudinal component dominant to the transverse component and consequently causes microscopic buckling to localize in a cell row perpendicular to the loading axis. It is further shown that under equi-biaxial compression, the flower-like buckling mode having occurred in a macroscopically stable state changes into an asymmetric, long-wave mode due to the sextuple bifurcation in a macroscopically unstable state, leading to the localization of microscopic buckling in deltaic areas.     

Effective elastic behavior of some models for perfect cellular solids

The effective elastic behavior of some models for low density cellular solids, or solid foams, are calculated using analytical and numerical techniques. The models are perfect in the sense that imperfections or irregularities as often encountered in real foams have been removed. We believe that the present models can serve as references to which more advanced models which include imperfections and irregularities can be compared. The work in this paper does not address buckling or yielding in cell walls, which play an increasingly important role as foam stresses increase.     

The boundaries of the effective elastic moduli for inhomogeneous solids

The calculation of the effective elastic moduli of inhomogeneous solids, which connect the stresses and strains averaged for the material, is accompanied by certain mathematical difficulties owing to correlation relationships of arbitrary orders. Neglect of correlation relationships leads to average elastic moduli, where averaging according to Voigt and Reuss establishes boundaries containing the effective elastic moduli [1]. Approximate values of the latter can be found by taking into account the correlation relationships of the second order in both calculation schemes [2, 3]. Another method of evaluating the true moduli consists of narrowing the boundaries of Voigt and Reuss on the basis of model representations [4-6]. The approximate effective elastic moduli for a series of polycrystals with various common-angle values are presented in [7]. An analysis of the effect of the correlation relationships between the grains of a mechanical mixture of isotropic components on the effective elastic moduli is carried out in [8], although in all the papers just mentioned the use of correlative corrections to narrow the range of elastic moduli is not investigated. Below it is shown that the calculation of the correlation corrections in the second approximation allows the range for the effective moduli to be narrowed.     

Effective elastic properties of periodic composite medium

A new method is presented for calculating the bulk effective elastic stiffness tensor of a two-component composite with a periodic microstructure. The basic features of this method are similar to the one introduced by Bergman and Dunn (1992) for the dielectric problem. It is based on a Fourier representation of an integro-differential equation for the displacement field, which is used to produce a continued-fraction expansion for the elastic moduli. The method enabled us to include a much larger number of Fourier components than some previously proposed Fourier methods. Consequently our method provides the possibility of performing reliable calculations of the effective elastic tensor of periodic composites that are neither dilute nor low contrast, and are not restricted to arrays of nonoverlapping inclusions. We present results for a cubic array of nonoverlapping spheres, intended to serve as a test of quality, as well as results for a cubic array of overlapping spheres and a two dimensional hexagonal array of circles (a model for a fiber reinforced material) for comparison with previous work.     

Size-dependent effective elastic constants of solids containing nano-inhomogeneities with interface stress

The fundamental framework of micromechanical procedure is generalized to take into account the surface/interface stress effect at the nano-scale. This framework is applied to the derivation of the effective moduli of solids containing nano-inhomogeneities in conjunction with the composite spheres assemblage model, the Mori-Tanaka method and the generalized self-consistent method. Closed-form expressions are given for the bulk and shear moduli, which are shown to be functions of the interface properties and the size of the inhomogeneities. The dependence of the elastic moduli on the size of the inhomogeneities highlights the importance of the surface/interface in analysing the deformation of nano-scale structures. The present results are applicable to analysis of the properties of nano-composites and foam structures.     

Effective elastic properties of solids with defects of irregular shapes

Pores and defects in real materials often have very irregular shapes. Thus, micromechanical modeling based on the analytical solutions of elasticity becomes inapplicable. The objective of this paper is to present a computational procedure to calculate the contribution of the irregularly shaped defects into the effective moduli of two-dimensional elastic solids. In this procedure, the cavity compliance tensor is constructed numerically for an individual defect, and then used in the elastic potential-based approach to predict the effective moduli of porous solids. Two computational methods are used in this paper to calculate the components of a cavity compliance tensor: finite element analysis and numerical conformal mapping. Application of this procedure to the regular hole shapes produces results that are in good correspondence with analytical predictions.     

One method of determining the elastic properties of inhomogeneous solids

This paper considers the inverse problem of reconstructing three inhomogeneous characteristics of a rod (Young’s modulus, shear modulus, and density) from amplitude-frequency characteristics for the regime of steady-state longitudinal, flexural, and torsional vibrations. The unknown characteristics are identified by constructing iterative processes based on the apparatus of the Fredholm integral equations of the first and the second kind. Results of numerical experiments are presented.     

Effective properties of elastic periodic composite media with fibers

A series solution to obtain the effective properties of some elastic composites media having periodically located heterogeneities is described. The method uses the classical expansion along Neuman series of the solution of the periodic elasticity problem in Fourier space, based on the Green's tensor, and exact expressions of factors depending on the shape of the inclusions. Some properties of convergence of the solution are presented, more specifically concerning the elasticity tensor of the reference medium, showing that the convergence occurs even for empty fibers. The solution is extended for rigid inclusions. A comparison is made with previous exact solutions for a fiber composite made of cylindrical fibers with circular cross-sections and with previous estimates. Different examples are presented for new situations concerning the study of fiber composites: composites with elliptic cross-sections and multi-phase fibrous composites.     

Bounds on the non-local effective elastic properties of composites

The paper deals with the effective linear elastic behaviour of random media subjected to inhomogeneous mean fields. The effective constitutive laws are known to be non-local. Therefore, the effective elastic moduli show dispersion, i.e¹ they depend on the “wave vector” k of the mean field. In this paper the well-known Hashin-Shtrikman bounds (1962) for the Lamé parameters of isotropic multi-phase mixtures are generalized to inhomogeneous mean fields k ≠ 0. The bounds involve two-point correlations of random elastic moduli. In the limit k → ∞ the bounds converge to the exact result. The interest is focussed on composites with cell structures and on binary mixtures. To illustrate the results, numerical evaluations are carried out for a binary cell material composed of nearly spherical grains of equal size.     

Effect of overlapping inclusions on effective elastic properties of composites

We are considering, in this study, to quantify the difference between two morphologies: heterogeneous materials with overlapping identical spherical inclusions and heterogeneous materials with identical hard one. Coupling with numerical simulations, the statistical analysis of microstructures morphology was used to evaluate the representativeness of results. The methodology, developed in Kanit et al. (2003), is used to determine exactly the integral range (IR), variance and covariance of each microstructure type. The obtained results show that the integral range of microstructures with hard spheres, is simply, the volume of one inclusion in the deterministic representative volume element, and for microstructures with overlapping spheres, is 8 times the integral range in the case of hard spheres. The obtained results suggest us to define a new concept what we propose to name the Equivalent Morphology Concept (EMC). The relationships between parameters of two microstructures are presented.     

Theory of nonlocal asymmetric elastic solids

In this paper, a nonlinear theory of nonlocal asymmetric, elastic solids is developed on the basis of basic theories of nonlocal continuum fieM theory and nonlinear continuum mechanics. It perfects and expands the nonlocal elastic fiteld theory developed by Eringen and others. The linear theory of nonlocal asymmetric elasticity developed in [1] expands to the finite deformation, We show that there is the nonlocal body moment in the nonlocal elastic solids. The noniocal body moment causes the stress asymmetric and itself is caused by the covalent bond formed by the reaction between atoms. The theory developed in this paper is applied to explain reasonably that curves of dispersion relation of one-dimensional plane longitudinal waves are not similar with those of transverse waves.     

On shakedown of elastic plastic solids

Summary Making reference to elastic perfectly plastic solids subjected to cyclic loads, the problem of the shakedown load factor is considered and the relevant Euler-Lagrange equations are discussed. It is proved that the solution to these equations describes the gradient, with respect to the load multiplier, of the steady-state response of the solid body to the cyclic loads at the shakedown limit, and that it thus enables one to predict the nature of the impending collapse. These results are then extended to the more general case of loads varying within a given load domain.

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Sommario Facendo riferimento a un solido elastico perfettamente plastico soggetto a carichi ciclici, si considera il problema del moltiplicatore dei carichi ad adattamento e si studiano le equazioni di Eulero-Lagrange ad esso associate. Si trova che la soluzione di queste equazioni descrive il gradiente, rispetto al moltiplicatore dei carichi, della risposta stazionaria del solido ai carichi ciclici al limite di adattamento, e che quindi essa consente di predire la natura del collasso incipiente, Questi risultati vengono quindi estesi al caso più generale di carichi variabili in un dato dominio.

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This paper is part of a research project sponsored by the National Research Council (CNR) of Italy.     

Nonlinear dynamics of oriented elastic solids

Based on a continuum model for oriented elastic solids the set of nonlinear dispersive equations derived in Part I of this work allows one to investigate the nonlinear wave propagation of the soliton type. The equations govern the coupled rotation-displacement motions in connection with the linear elastic behavior and large-amplitude rotations of the director field. In the one-dimensional version of the equations and for two simple configurations an exhaustive study of solitons is presented. We show that the transverse and/or longitudinal elastic displacements are coupled to the rotational motion so that solitons, jointly in the rotation of the director and the elastic deformations, are exhibited. These solitons are solutions of a system of linear wave equations for the elastic displacements which are nonlinearly coupled to a sine-Gordon equation for the rotational motion. For each configuration, the solutions are numerically illustrated and the energy of the solitions is calculated. Finally, some applications of the continuum model and the related nonlinear dynamics to several physical situations are given and additional more complex problems are also evoked by way of conclusion.     

Novel implementation of homogenization method to predict effective properties of periodic materials

Representative volume element (RVE) method and asymptotic homogenization (AH) method are two widely used methods in predicting effective properties of periodic materials. This paper develops a novel implementation of the AH method, which has rigorous mathematical foundation of the AH method, and also simplicity as the RVE method. This implementation can be easily realized using commercial software as a black box, and can use all kinds of elements available in commercial software to model unit cells with rather complicated microstructures, so the model may remain a fairly small scale. Several examples were carried out to demonstrate the simplicity and effectiveness of the new implementation.     

一维周期性梁结构等效性能计算方法讨论

具有轴向周期微结构的复合梁结构,通常在宏观上简化为一维欧拉-伯努利梁。由于缺乏基于严格数学理论、同时考虑降维及均匀化的等效性能计算方法,已有研究或采用基于平截面假定的弯曲能量近似方法,或采用基于三维周期性介质等效性质的方法。本文首先介绍了基于一维周期性梁的渐近均匀化理论求解新方法,并在此基础上与上述两种方法进行比较。结果表明,基于平截面假定的近似方法忽视了这类梁结构内的三维应力状态,过高地估计了梁的等效性质。