A closed-form, hierarchical, multi-interphase model for composites—Derivation, verification and application to nanocomposites

A closed form Hierarchical Multi-interphase Model (HMM) based on the classical elasticity theory is proposed to study the influence of the interphase around inclusions on the enhancement mechanism of composites in the elastic regime. The HMM is verified by three-dimensional Finite Element simulations and highly consistent results are obtained for the cases with relatively low stiffness ratios (SR) between the inclusions and the matrix (SR<100). For cases with large SRs (up to 10,000), the HMM with the assumption of ellipsoidal inclusions provides a lower bound for the stiffnesses of composites enhanced by non-ellipsoidal particles with the same aspect ratio of inclusions. The Modified Hierarchical Multi-interphase Model (MHMM) is developed by introducing morphology parameters to the HMM, to capture the high morphology sensitivity of composites at high SRs with the non-uniform stress-strain fields. In addition, one important feature of the HMM and the MHMM is the particle-size dependency. As an application of this model to predict size effects and shape effects, the enhancement efficiencies of three typical inclusions - sphere, fiber-like particle and platelet - at different scales, are studied and compared, producing useful information about the morphology optimization at the nano-scale.     

A novel approach for anisotropic hardening modeling. Part II: Anisotropic hardening in proportional and non-proportional loadings,application to initially isotropic material

The modeling of anisotropic hardening, in particular for non-proportional loading paths, is a challenging task for advanced macroscopic models. The complex distortion of the yield locus is related to the activation and cross-hardening of different slip systems, depending on crystallographic orientations. These physical mechanisms can be taken into account in polycrystalline models but the computation times are enormous. The novel approach detailed in Part I (Rousselier et al., 2009) consists in: (i) drastically reducing the number of crystallographic orientations to save the computation cost, (ii) applying a parameter calibration procedure to obtain a good agreement with the experimental database. This methodology is first applied here to the anisotropic hardening in the proportional loadings of the strongly anisotropic aluminum alloy of Part I. Very good modeling is achieved with only eight crystallographic orientations. Different levels of additional hardening in biaxial proportional loading as compared to uniaxial loading can be modeled with the same polycrystalline model. For this, only the parameter calibration has to be performed with different databases. The same methodology has also been applied for the modeling of isotropic behavior. The best compromise between model accuracy and numerical cost is obtained with fourteen orientations. The deviations from isotropy are acceptable in all loading directions. Different levels of hardening in orthogonal loading: simple shear followed by simple tension, are achieved without any modification of the model equations. Only the parameter calibration has to be performed with different hardening levels in the database. FE calculations of a deep drawing test have been performed. The CPU time of the polycrystalline model is only five times larger than that with the simple von Mises model. The CPU time with texture evolution is further increased by a factor of two. The effects of texture evolution in rolling of the initially isotropic fcc material have been investigated. The resulting texture and hardening are qualitatively good.     

A generic framework for time-stepping partial differential equations (PDEs): general linear methods,object-oriented implementation and application to fluid problems

Time-stepping algorithms and their implementations are a critical component within the solution of time-dependent partial differential equations (PDEs). In this article, we present a generic framework – both in terms of algorithms and implementations – that allows an almost seamless switch between various explicit, implicit and implicit–explicit (IMEX) time-stepping methods. We put particular emphasis on how to incorporate time-dependent boundary conditions, an issue that goes beyond classical ODE theory but which plays an important role in the time-stepping of the PDEs arising in computational fluid dynamics. Our algorithm is based upon J.C. Butcher's unifying concept of general linear methods that we have extended to accommodate the family of IMEX schemes that are often used in engineering practice. In the article, we discuss design considerations and present an object-oriented implementation. Finally, we illustrate the use of the framework by applications to a model problem as well as to more complex fluid problems.     

A new VOF‐based numerical scheme for the simulation of fluid flow with free surface. Part II: application to the cavity filling and sloshing problems

Finite element analysis of fluid flow with moving free surface has been performed in 2‐D and 3‐D. The new VOF‐based numerical algorithm that has been proposed by the present authors (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids, submitted) was applied to several 2‐D and 3‐D free surface flow problems. The proposed free surface tracking scheme is based on two numerical tools; the orientation vector to represent the free surface orientation in each cell and the baby‐cell to determine the fluid volume flux at each cell boundary. The proposed numerical algorithm has been applied to 2‐D and 3‐D cavity filling and sloshing problems in order to demonstrate the versatility and effectiveness of the scheme. The proposed numerical algorithm resolved successfully the free surfaces interacting with each other. The simulated results demonstrated applicability of the proposed numerical algorithm to the practical problems of large free surface motion. It has been also demonstrated that the proposed free surface tracking scheme can be easily implemented in any irregular non‐uniform grid systems and can be extended to 3‐D free surface flow problems without additional efforts. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.