Micro-mechanical modelling of strain induced porosity under generally compressive stress states

This paper is concerned with the nucleation and growth of voids in a titanium alloy undergoing high temperature deformations under generally compressive stress states typical of forging processes. A micro-mechanical model for void nucleation has been developed based on a debonding process between primary alpha particles and the beta matrix. The finite element model developed has been used to examine in detail the stress state sensitivity of void nucleation within the particle-matrix system. The results obtained are compared with other phenomenological approaches showing good agreement for most stress states, but giving different results for a range of compressive stress states. A continuum-level representation of the micro-mechanical results has been obtained and implemented into a finite element model. Cylindrical specimen compression tests have been carried out over the strain rate range 0.005-5.0s⁻¹ and temperature range 925–975°C under conditions of high specimen-die friction.Regions of stress triaxiality that are tensile in nature were therefore generated, and the specimens tested to an overall strain of 0.5 were sectioned, polished and etched. The resulting distributions of voids were quantified, and compared with those predicted using the finite element model discussed above. Good quantitative agreement was obtained both in terms of the magnitude of the area fractions of voids and their distributions. The model also captures reasonably well the strain rate and temperature dependence of the voiding. However, the model assumptions of uniform distributions of alpha particles which are all perfectly spherical and with identical interfacial bond strengths are overly simple, and need to be improved.     

Micro-mechanical analysis of deformation characteristics of three-dimensional granular materials

The deformation characteristics of idealized granular materials have been studied from the micro-mechanical viewpoint, using Bagi’s three-dimensional micro-mechanical formulation for the strain tensor [Bagi, K., 1996. Mechanics of Materials 22, 165–177]. This formulation is based on the Delaunay tessellation of space into tetrahedra. The set of edges of the tetrahedra can be divided into physical contacts and virtual contacts between particles. Bagi’s formulation expresses the continuum, macro-scale strain as an average over all edges, of their relative displacements (between two successive states) and the complementary-area vectors. This latter vector is a geometrical quantity determined from the set of edges, i.e. from the structure of the particle packing.Results from Discrete Element Method simulations of isotropic and triaxial loading of a three-dimensional polydisperse packing of spheres have been used to investigate statistics of the branch vectors and complementary-area vectors of edges (subdivided into physical and virtual contacts) and of the relative displacements of edges. The investigated statistics are probability density functions and averages over groups of edges with the same orientation. It is shown that these averages can be represented by second-order Fourier series in edge orientation.Edge orientations are distributed isotropically, contrary to contact orientations. The average lengths of the branch vectors and the normal component of the complementary-area vectors are distributed isotropically (with respect to the edge orientation) and their average values are related to each other and to the volume fraction of the assembly. The other two components of the complementary-area vector are zero on average.The total deformation of the assembly, as given by the average of the relative displacements of the edges of the Delaunay tessellation follows the uniform-strain prediction. However, neither the deformation of the physical contact network nor of the virtual contact network has this property. The average relative displacement of physical edges in the normal direction (determined by the branch vector) is smaller than that according to the uniform-strain assumption, while that of virtual contacts is larger. This is caused by the high interparticle stiffness that hinders compression. The reverse observation holds for the tangential component of the relative displacement vector. The contribution of the deformation of the empty space between physical contacts to the continuum, macro-scale strain tensor is therefore very important for the understanding and the prediction of the macro-scale deformation of granular materials.     

Micro-mechanical bases of some salient constitutive features of granular materials

Although phenomenological constitutive models have the ability to exhibit most salient macroscopic features of granular materials, they generally do not provide any convincing interpretation of them: their basic origin remains hidden. It is now well established that the micro-structure of granular materials plays a significant role in their overall constitutive behavior. In the past few years, a great deal of theoretical and experimental research has been devoted to this domain, giving rise to efficient micro-mechanical approaches. First, this paper reviews the micro-directional model, which is a micro-mechanically based constitutive relation. Then an extension is proposed to describe the possible collapse of force chains. This micro-structural adjunction is shown to be sufficient to simulate work-hardening and softening mechanisms. A granular assembly, containing a multitude of frictional contacts whose orientation is generally anisotropically distributed, exhibits various other typical features such as the nonassociated character of plastic strains. The micro-structural origin of this feature is investigated, and further conclusions related to the existence of a regular or a singular flow rule are drawn.     

Transient temperature fields and residual stress fields of metallic materials under welding

Based on the situation of welding thermal conduction and thermo-elasto-plasticityresearch,Ms paper explores some problems in this field.First,the boundary elementmethod for nonlinear problems is improved by linearization of nonlinear problems and usedin welding thermal conduction analysis.Second,the thermo-elasto-plastic finite elementmethod is used for the welding stress calculation,in which the phase transformation isconsidered by the"equivalent linear expansion coefficient method".The comparison of the calculated results with experimental data shows that themethods provided in this paper are available.     

Uniform strain fields and exact results in an elastoplastic fibre-reinforced composite

This work is concerned with a two-phase material consisting of an elastoplastic matrix reinforced by linearly elastic fibres. It is first shown that uniform strain fields can be generated in this heterogeneous material. A return-mapping based algorithm is then proposed and used to find uniform strain loading paths. With the help of uniform strain fields, exact results, independent of the transverse geometry and arrangement of the fibres, are derived for the effective elastic properties and for the effective initial and current yield surfaces. To cite this article: Q.-C. He, H. Le Quang, C. R. Mecanique 332 (2004).     

Boundary-layer corrections for stress and strain fields in randomly heterogeneous materials

Boundary-layer effects on the effective response of fibre-reinforced media are analysed. The distribution of the fibres is assumed random. A methodology is presented for obtaining non-local effective constitutive operators in the vicinity of a boundary. These relate ensemble averaged stress to ensemble averaged strain. Operators are also developed which re-construct the local fields from their ensemble averages. These require information on the local configuration of the medium. Complete information is likely not to be available, but averages of these operators conditional upon any given local information generate corresponding conditional averages of the fields. Explicit implementation is performed within the framework of an approximation of Hashin-Shtrikman type. Two types of geometry are considered in examples: a half-space and a crack in an infinite heterogeneous medium. These are representative, asymptotically, of the field in the vicinity of any smooth boundary, and in the vicinity of a crack tip, respectively. Results have been obtained for the case of anti-plane deformation, realized by the imposition of either Dirichlet or Neumann conditions on the boundary; those for the Neumann condition are presented and discussed explicitly. The stresses in both fibre and matrix adjacent to a crack tip are shown to differ substantially from the values that would be predicted by ordinary homogenization.     

FE analysis of stress and strain fields in finite random composite bodies

In this paper the mechanical behaviour of finite random heterogeneous bodies is considered. The analysis of non-local interactions between heterogeneities in microscopically heterogeneous materials is necessary when the spatial variation of the load or the dimensions of the body, relative to the scale of the microstructure, cannot be ignored. Microstructures can be periodic but generically they are random. In the first case, an exact calculation can be performed but in the second case recourse has to be made either to simulation or to some scheme of approximation. One such scheme is based on a stochastic variational principle. The novelty of the present work is that a stochastic variational principle is projected directly onto a finite-element basis so that all subsequent analysis is performed within a finite-element framework. The proposed formulation provides expressions for the local stress and strain fields in any realization of the medium, from which expressions for statistically-averaged quantities can be derived. Then an approximation of Hashin-Shtrikman type is developed, which generates a FE-based numerical procedure able to take account of interactions between random inclusions and boundary layer effects in finite composite structures. Finally, two examples are presented, namely a cylinder with square cross-section subjected to mixed boundary conditions of different types on different faces and a rectangular body containing a centre crack. The results show that in the vicinity of the boundary or close to the crack tip, the strain and the stress in the matrix and in the inclusions differ considerably from those obtained by the formal application of conventional homogenization.     

The crack tip fields of orthotropic composite plate under bending

1MechhacalModelThefractUreproblemwhichisthesameasthatinpaper[I]isfurtherdiscussedinthispaper.TheanalysisoffractUrebehavioursnearcracktipforinfinitelinearelasticorthotropiccompositeplatewithacentralthroughcrackoflengthZaiscarriedout.ThegeometryandloadingcondihonsareshowninFig.1.Tosolvesuchaproblem,weneedtosolvethepanaldifferentialequationwiththefollowingboundaryconditions:wherewisdeflectionofcoddleplane;M.andM,arebendingmoment,Ma.istwistingmoment,andstiffnessmatrixFromthetheoryofplateL'],w…     

A thermodynamical constitutive model for shape memory materials. Part II. The SMA composite material

The phenomenological SMA equations developed in Part I are used in this second paper to derive the free energy and dissipation of a SMA composite material. The derivation consists of solving a boundary value problem formulated over a mesoscale representative volume element, followed by an averaging procedure to obtain the macroscopic composite constitutive equations. Explicit equations are derived for the transformation tensors that relate the composite transformation strain rate to the phase transformation rate in the fiber and matrix. Some key findings for the two-way SME in a SMA fiber/elastomer matrix composite are that processing-induced residual stresses alter the composite austenite start and martensite start temperatures, as well as the amount of composite strain recovered during a complete cycle of temperature and fiber martensite volume fraction. Relative to the two-way SME response of stiff-matrix composites, it was found that compliant-matrix composites: (1) complete the phase transformation over a narrower temperature range; (2) exhibit greater transformation strain during the reverse transformation; and (3) undergo an incomplete strain cycle during a complete cycle of temperature and fiber martensite volume fraction. Due to the interaction of the fiber and matrix during transformation, macroscopic proportional stressing of the composite results in non-proportional fiber stressing, which in turn causes a small amount of martensitic reorientation to occur simultaneously with the transformation.     

Experimental investigation on fracture of viscoelastic materials under biaxial-stress fields

Fracture behavior of viscoelastic materials under various biaxial-stress fields was studied experimentally in a specially developed apparatus. The biaxial stresses were applied at various time rates of stress to study the effects of rate of loading on fracture behavior. Examination of experimental data indicated that a simple relationship could be established between octahedral shear stress and octahedral shear strain at fracture corresponding to various biaxial stresses. Finally, a criterion of failure based on the total strain energy at fracture was suggested. The strain energy at fracture predicted from the linear viscoelastic theory agrees reasonably well with that determined experimentally.     

Fatigue strength of metallic and composite materials under repeated tension-compression

The fatigue strength of metallic and composite materials under combined static and cyclic loading is analyzed. The analysis is based on limit-state models, which allow us to describe limiting-stress diagrams of all known shapes, including convex, rectilinear, S-shaped, and concave. The fatigue strength of the following materials is evaluated: carbon and alloy steels, aluminum alloys, creep-resistant nickel alloys, unidirectional composites, plastic laminates, glassfiber-reinforced plastics, and polymers. The calculated results and experimental data are in satisfactory agreement __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 48–58, January 2006.     

Some basic problems in numerically simulating effective properties and local fields of composite materials

It is pointed out that to numerically estimate the effective properties and local fields of matrix-inclusion composites, a commonly adopted method is accompanied with some serious draw-backs. We call this method the nominal loading scheme (NLS), which considers the actual inclusion distribution inside a finite domain, Ω say, treats the external domain of Ω to be of the pure matrix material, and imposes the actural traction, σ^∞ say on the remote boundary. It thus gives rise to the following basic problems: (i) Can NLS be improved remarkably just by adjusting σ^∞? (ii) What is the relationship between the size of Ω and the scale of inclusions? (iii) Which choice is better in calculating the effective properties, the whole domain Ω or an appropriately selected sub-domain of Ω? Targeting these problems, the equivalent loading scheme (ELS) and equivalent matrix scheme (EMS) are proposed. It is theoretically analyzed that both ELS and EMS can be used to precisely simulating the effective properties and local fields of matrix-inclusion composities, and both ELS and EMS are self-approved. As an application, ELS combined with a so-called pseudo-dislocations method is used to evaluate the effective properties and local fields of two-dimensional two-phase composites with close-packed circular inclusions, or randomly distributed circular inclusions, or randomly distributed microcracks. The results show that substituting the remore traction σ^∞ with the effective stress field σ^ɛ suggested by IDD scheme is a simple and effective method, and the estimation of the effective properties and local fields is very close to the accurate solution. The present work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 19525207).     

Measurement of inhomogeneous strain fields by fiber optic sensors embedded in a polymer composite material

Experimental results of strain field measurement in polymer composite specimens by Bragg grating fiber optic strain sensors embedded in the material are considered. A rectangular plate and a rectangular plate with “butterfly” shaped cuts are used as specimens. The results of uniaxial strain experiments with rectangular plates show that fiber optic strain sensors can be used to measure the strains, and these results can be used to calculate the calibration coefficients for fiber optic strain sensors. A gradient strain field is attained in a plate with cuts, and the possibility of measuring this field by fiber optic strain sensors is the main goal of this paper. The results of measurements of gradient strain fields in the plate with cuts are compared with the results obtained by using the three-dimensional digital optic system Vix-3D and with the results of numerical computations based on finite element methods. It is shown that the difference between the strain values obtained by these three methods does not exceed 5%.     

The strain energy density ratio criterion for predicting cracking direction in composite materials

The strain energy density ratio criterion for predicting cracking direction incomposite materials is proposed.The Tsai-Hill criterion and Norris criterion ofcomposite materials are extended to predict the cracking direction in composites.Thethree criteria are used to analyse the crack propagation problem of the unidirectionalfibre composite sheet with various fibre directions.The predicted results are comparedwith those of the existing normal stress ratio criterion and strain energy densitycriterion.     

Multiple internal resonances of rotating composite cylindrical shells under varying temperature fields

Applied Mathematics and Mechanics - Composite cylindrical shells, as key components, are widely employed in large rotating machines. However, due to the frequency bifurcations and dense frequency...     

Fatigue strength of metallic and composite materials under repeated high-cycle bending

The problem of fatigue strength analysis of metallic and composite materials subjected to combined static and cyclic bending is resolved. The analysis is based on limit-state models, which allow describing limiting-stress curves of all known shapes, including convex, rectilinear, S-shaped, and concave. The fatigue strength of the following materials is evaluated: carbon and alloyed steels, aluminum alloys, unidirectional organic plastics, laminated plastics, and glassfiber-reinforced plastics. The calculated and experimental data are in satisfactory agreement __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 42, No. 5, pp. 26–36, May 2006.     

Experimental analysis of crack tip fields in rubber materials under large deformation

A three-nested-deformation model is proposed to describe crack-tip fields in rubber-like materials with large deformation.The model is inspired by the distribution of the measured in-plane and out-of-plane deformation.The inplane displacement of crack-tip fields under both Mode I and mixed-mode(Mode I-II) fracture conditions is measured by using the digital Moire’ method.The deformation characteristics and experimental sector division mode are investigated by comparing the measured displacement fields under different fracture modes.The out-of-plane displacement field near the crack tip is measured using the three-dimensional digital speckle correlation method.     

Fracture behaviors of piezoelectric materials

Theoretical analyses and experimental observations of the failure and fracture behaviors of piezoelectric materials are presented. The theoretical analyses are based on the Stroh formalism. A strip dielectric breakdown model is proposed to estimate the effect of electrical non-linearity on the piezoelectric fracture of electrically insulated cracks. The reviewed experiments include the indentation fracture test, the bending test on smooth samples, the fracture test on pre-notched or pre-cracked samples, the environment-assisted fracture test, etc. For electrically insulated cracks, the experimental results show a complicated fracture behavior under combined electrical and mechanical loading. Fracture data are greatly scattered when a static electric field is applied. For electrically conducting cracks, the experimental results demonstrate that static electric fields can fracture poled and depoled lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics. A charge-free zone model is introduced to understand the failure behavior of conducting cracks in the depoled lead zirconate titanate ceramics under electrical and/or mechanical loading. These theoretical and experimental results indicate that fracture mechanics concepts are useful in the study of the failure behaviors of piezoelectric materials.