A series solution for the effective properties of incompressible viscoelastic media

This paper presents a series solution for the homogenization problem of a linear viscoelastic periodic incompressible composite. The method uses the Laplace transform and the correspondence principle which are combined with the classical expansion along Neumann series of the solution of the periodic elasticity problem in Fourier space. The terms of the Neumann series appear as decoupled, containing geometry dependent terms and viscoelastic properties dependent terms which are polynomial fractions whose inverse Laplace transforms are provided explicitly.     

Mindlin second-gradient elastic properties from dilute two-phase Cauchy-elastic composites. Part I: Closed form expression for the effective higher-order constitutive tensor

It is shown that second-order homogenization of a Cauchy-elastic dilute suspension of randomly distributed inclusions yields an equivalent second gradient (Mindlin) elastic material. This result is valid for both plane and three-dimensional problems and extends earlier findings by Bigoni and Drugan [Bigoni, D., Drugan, W.J., 2007. Analytical derivation of Cosserat moduli via homogenization of heterogeneous elastic materials. J. Appl. Mech. 74, 741–753] from several points of view: (i) the result holds for anisotropic phases with spherical or circular ellipsoid of inertia; (ii) the displacement boundary conditions considered in the homogenization procedure is independent of the characteristics of the material; (iii) a perfect energy match is found between heterogeneous and equivalent materials (instead of an optimal bound). The constitutive higher-order tensor defining the equivalent Mindlin solid is given in a surprisingly simple formula. Applications, treatment of material symmetries and positive definiteness of the effective higher-order constitutive tensor are deferred to Part II of the present article.     

A pattern-based method for bounding the effective response of a nonlinear composite

This paper deals with the prediction of the effective properties of nonlinear composites. Rather than bounding the effective energy, this work aims at bounding directly the effective stress-strain response, by extending a method originally introduced by Milton and Serkov (J. Mech. Phys. Solids 48 (2000) 1295) and recently refined by Talbot and Willis (Proc. Roy. Soc. 460 (2004) 2705). In this paper, bounding the effective response is achieved by introducing a linear comparison composite with the same micro-geometry as the given nonlinear composite, as Ponte Castañeda (J. Mech. Phys. Solids 39 (1991) 45) did for the energy. It is found that any lower bound for the energy of the linear comparison composite generates a corresponding bound for the stress-strain response of the nonlinear composite. A selection of examples is presented to illustrate the method and compare the bounds obtained with existing results.     

On the modeling and design of piezocomposites with prescribed properties

Summary  Piezoelectric transversely isotropic matrix containing spheroidal piezoelectric inclusions with different properties and of, generally, diverse aspect ratios is considered. A full set of ten effective electrostatic constants is derived, using the method of effective field. The case, when the inclusions are circular cylinders (fibers) is analyzed in detail. The results are compared with those of several earlier works. They constitute the theoretical framework for the design of piezocomposites with prescribed overall properties. Received 3 May 2001; accepted for publication 26 June 2001     

Estimation of very narrow bounds to the behavior of nonlinear incompressible elastic composites

Variational bounds for the effective behavior of nonlinear composites are improved by incorporating more-detailed morphological information. Such bounds, which are obtained from the generalized Hashin–Shtrikman variational principles, make use of a reference material with the same microstructure as the nonlinear composite. The geometrical information is contained in the effective properties of the reference material, which are explicitly present in the analytical formulae of the nonlinear bounds. In this paper, the variational approach is combined with estimates for the effective properties of the reference composite via the asymptotic homogenization method (AHM), and applied to a hexagonally periodic fiber-reinforced incompressible nonlinear elastic composite, significantly improving some recent results.     

Micromechanics predictions of the effective moduli of magnetoelectroelastic composite materials

In this paper, the self-consistent, generalized Mori–Tanaka and dilute micromechanics theories are extended to study the coupled magnetoelectroelastic composite materials. The heterogeneous inclusion problem of magnetoelectroelastic behavior is formulated in terms of five interaction tensors related to the Green's functions for an infinite three-dimensional transversely isotropic magnetoelectroelastic solid. These tensors are then used to predict the effective moduli of the magnetoelectroelastic solid based on the self-consistent, Mori–Tanaka and the dilute approaches. Numerical results are obtained for various types of inclusions. These results are employed to study the effects of the inclusion properties, such as moduli, volume fractions, shapes, etc., on the effective moduli of magnetoelectroelastic composites, in particular, the related magnetic properties. The results obtained using the self-consistent model, the generalized Mori–Tanaka's model and the dilute approach are compared with the existing experimental and theoretical results.     

On estimation methods for effective moduli of microcracked solids

Summary  Most of the conventional methods for estimating the overall elastic moduli of microcracked solids are defined based on the concept of effective medium or effective field. The formal similarity of these methods is examined in this paper. A one-to-one correspondence relation exists between the effective medium methods and the effective field methods in the sense that they yield identical results. In addition to the conventional estimation techniques, any other number of such approaches may be constructed by appropriately specifying the effective matrix compliance (or stiffness) tensor and the effective stress (or strain) field which a microcrack is assumed to be subjected to. To generate continuous spectra of new methods for estimating the effective elastic moduli, two simple and straightforward approaches are proposed, which contain one or two adjustable parameters in order to yield results of good accuracy. The discussion in this paper can be extended to other kinds of heterogeneous materials. Received 4 October 2000; accepted for publication 30 January 2001     

Variational principles of perforated thin plates and finite element method for buckling and post-buckling analysis

On the basis of the general theory of perforated thin plates under large deflections^{[1, 2]}, variational principles with deflectionw and stress functionF as variables are stated in detail. Based on these principles, finite element method is established for analysing the buckling and post-buckling of perforated thin plates. It is found that the property of element is very complicated, owing to the multiple connexity of the region. Project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China.     

Integral transform solution for the lid-driven cavity flow problem in streamfunction-only formulation

The basic ideas in the generalized integral transform technique are further advanced to allow for the hybrid numerical-analytical solution of the two-dimensional steady Navier-Stokes equations in streamfunction-only formulation. The classical lid-driven square cavity problem is selected for illustration of the approach. The corresponding biharmonic-type non-linear partial differential equation for the streamfunction is integral transformed in one of the co-ordinates and an infinite system of coupled non-linear ODEs for the transformed potential results in the other independent variable. Upon truncation to an appropriate finite order, the ODE system is numerically solved by well-established algorithms with automatic error control devices. The convergence behaviour of the eigenfunction expansion is demonstrated and reference results are provided for typical values of Reynolds number.     

Formulation of a semi-analytical approach based on Gurtin variational principle for dynamic response of general thin plates

4 semi-analytical approach for the dynamic response of general thin plates which employes finite element discretization in space domain and a series of representation in time domain is developed on the basis of Gurtin variational principles. The formulation of time series is also investigated so that the dynamic response of plates with arbitrary shape and boundary constraints can be achieved with adequate accuracy.Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China     

Bounds and estimates for the effect of strain gradients upon the effective plastic properties of an isotropic two-phase composite

Predictions are made for the size effect on strength of a random, isotropic two-phase composite. Each phase is treated as an isotropic, elastic-plastic solid, with a response described by a modified deformation theory version of the Fleck-Hutchinson strain gradient plasticity formulation (Fleck and Hutchinson, J. Mech. Phys. Solids 49 (2001) 2245). The essential feature of the new theory is that the plastic strain tensor is treated as a primary unknown on the same footing as the displacement. Minimum principles for the energy and for the complementary energy are stated for a composite, and these lead directly to elementary bounds analogous to those of Reuss and Voigt. For the case of a linear hardening solid, Hashin-Shtrikman bounds and self-consistent estimates are derived. A non-linear variational principle is constructed by generalising that of Ponte Castañeda (J. Mech. Phys. Solids 40 (1992) 1757). The minimum principle is used to derive an upper bound, a lower estimate and a self-consistent estimate for the overall plastic response of a statistically homogeneous and isotropic strain gradient composite. Sample numerical calculations are performed to explore the dependence of the macroscopic uniaxial response upon the size scale of the microstructure, and upon the relative volume fraction of the two phases.     

On the convergence and causality of a frequency domain method for dynamic structural analysis

Venanico-Filho et al. developed an elegant matrix formulation for dynamic analysis by frequency domain (FD), but the convergence, causality and extended period need further refining. In the present paper, it was argued that: (1) under reasonable assumptions (approximating the frequency response function by the discrete Fourier transform of the discretized unitary impulse response function), the matrix formulation by FD is equivalent to a circular convolution; (2) to avoid the wraparound interference, the excitation vector and impulse response must be padded with enough zeros; (3) provided that the zero padding requirement satisfied, the convergence and accuracy of direct time domain analysis, which is equivalent to that by FD, are guaranteed by the numerical integration scheme; (4) the imaginary part of the computational response approaching zero is due to the continuity of the impulse response functions. The English text was polished by Yunming Chen     

Airy stress function for describing the non-linear effect of simply supported plates with movable edges

The general form of the solution of the Airy function for the stress distributions that describe the non-linear effect developed from the large deflection of simply supported plates with movable edges are found by superposition of the Airy functions, which satisfy the large deflection condition and the boundary conditions of the edges. Each term of the Airy function consists of a particular solution and a homogeneous one. The particular solution satisfying the large deflection condition is classified into six cases, depending on the combinations of the modal numbers of the comparison functions. The corresponding homogeneous solution is found to make each Airy function satisfy the boundary condition by using the Fourier series method. The solution is applied to the non-linear analysis of the deflection of the simply supported plates with movable edges under transverse loading, and is verified by comparison with other investigation.     

Assessment of variants of the k–ϵ turbulence model for engine flow applications

This paper is concerned with simulation of the mean flow and turbulence evolution in a model engine and comparison of the behaviour of certain important turbulence parameters, namely the intensity, length scale and dissipation time scale, as predicted by three variants of the k–? model developed for application to strongly compressible flows. The predictions pertain to the axisymmetric, disc-chamber, four-stroke, Imperial College model engine operating at 200 rpm and compression ratios of 3·5 and 6·7. The paper analyses the predicted variations of these parameters during the induction, compression and expansion strokes and identifies the versions that produce the most consistent and physically plausible variations. The significance, to the turbulence evolution, of the ratio of the turbulence dissipation time scale to the time scale of compression/expansion is also discussed. It is concluded that on these grounds the Morel–Mansour and El Tahry versions are, and the Watkins version is not, suitable for engine applications.     

Localization of deformation and stress–strain relation for mesoscopic heterogeneous brittle rock materials under unloading

Stress redistribution induced by excavation of underground engineering and slope engineering results in the unloading zone in parts of surrounding rock masses. The mechanical behaviors of crack-weakened rock masses under unloading are different from those of crack-weakened rock masses under loading. A micromechanics-based model has been proposed for brittle rock material undergoing irreversible changes of their microscopic structures due to microcrack growth when axial stress is held constant while lateral confinement is reduced. The basic idea of the present model is to classify the constitution relation of rock material into four stages including some of the stages of linear elasticity, pre-peak nonlinear hardening, rapid stress drop, and strain softening, and to investigate their corresponding micromechanical damage mechanisms individually. Special attention is paid to the transition from structure rearrangements on microscale to the macroscopic inelastic strain, to the transition from distribution damage to localization of damage and the transition from homogeneous deformation to localization of deformation. The closed-form explicit expression for the complete stress–strain relation of rock materials containing cracks under unloading is obtained. The results show that the complete stress–strain relation and the strength of rock materials under unloading depend on the crack spacing, the fracture toughness of rock materials, orientation of the cracks, the crack half-length and the crack density parameter.     

Validation of the Rayleigh–Ritz method for the postbuckling analysis of rectangular plates with application to delamination growth

Postbuckling solutions of laminated rectangular plates are obtained by the Rayleigh–Ritz method using von Karman’s nonlinear strain displacement relations and high-order polynomial expansions of the displacements. The potential energy function and the nonlinear algebraic equations governing the undetermined coefficients are obtained by Mathematica. Reasonably accurate solutions for the membrane forces, the bending and twisting moments and the pointwise energy-release rates generally require more undeterminated coefficients. Such refined postbuckling solutions show significant non-uniformity of the in-plane forces and strains and certain boundary effects characterized by concentration of the curvatures and the bending moment.