Dynamic crushing behavior of honeycomb structures with irregular cell shapes and non-uniform cell wall thickness

Dynamic crushing responses of honeycomb structures having irregular cell shapes and non-uniform cell wall thickness are studied using the Voronoi tessellation technique and the finite element (FE) method. FE models are constructed for such honeycomb structures based on Voronoi diagrams with different degrees of cell shape irregularity and cell wall thickness non-uniformity. The plateau stress, the densification strain energy and the initiation strain are determined using the FE models. Simulation results reveal that the “X” and “V” shaped deformation modes evident in a perfectly ordered honeycomb at low or moderate impact velocities are disrupted as cell shapes become irregular and/or cell wall thickness gets non-uniform. The “I” shaped deformation mode is clearly seen in all honeycomb structures at high impact velocities. Both the plateau stress and the densification strain energy are found to decrease as the degree of cell shape irregularity or the degree of cell wall thickness non-uniformity increases, with the weakening effect induced by the presence of non-uniform cell wall thickness being more significant. When the two types of imperfections co-exist in a honeycomb structure, the interaction between them is seen to exhibit a complicated pattern and to have a nonlinear effect on both the plateau stress and the densification strain energy. It is also found that stress waves propagate faster in a honeycomb structure having irregular cell shapes and slower in a honeycomb structure having non-uniform cell wall thickness than in a perfectly ordered honeycomb. Finally, the strain hardening of the cell wall material is seen to have a strengthening effect on the plateau stress, which is more significant for perfectly ordered honeycombs than for imperfect honeycomb structures.     

Strain-rate effect on initial crush stress of irregular honeycomb under dynamic loading and its deformation mechanism

The seemingly contradictory understandings of the initial crush stress of cellular materials under dynamic loadings exist in the literature, and a comprehensive analysis of this issue is carried out with using direct information of local stress and strain. Local stress/strain calculation methods are applied to determine the initial crush stresses and the strain rates at initial crush from a cell-based finite element model of irregular honeycomb under dynamic loadings. The initial crush stress under constant-velocity compression is identical to the quasi-static one, but less than the one under direct impact, i.e. the initial crush stresses under different dynamic loadings could be very different even though there is no strain-rate effect of matrix material. A power-law relation between the initial crush stress and the strain rate is explored to describe the strain-rate effect on the initial crush stress of irregular honeycomb when the local strain rate exceeds a critical value, below which there is no strain-rate effect of irregular honeycomb. Deformation mechanisms of the initial crush behavior under dynamic loadings are also explored. The deformation modes of the initial crush region in the front of plastic compaction wave are different under different dynamic loadings.     

High-order theory for arched structures and its application for the study of the electrostatically actuated MEMS devices

A high-order theory for arched rods and beams based on expansion of the two-dimensional (2D) equations of elasticity into Legendre’s polynomials series has been developed. The 2D equations of elasticity have been expanded into Legendre’s polynomials series in terms of a thickness coordinate. Thereby, all equations of elasticity including Hooke’s law have been transformed to corresponding equations for coefficients of Legendre’s polynomials expansion. Then system of differential equations in term of displacements and boundary conditions for the coefficients of Legendre’s polynomials expansion coefficients has been obtained. Cases of the first and second approximations have been considered in details. For obtained boundary-value problems, a finite element method has been used and numerical calculations have been done with COMSOL Multiphysics and MATLAB. Developed theory has been applied for study pull-in instability and stress–strain state of the electrostatically actuated micro-electro-mechanical Systems.     

The characteristics of plastic flow and a physically-based model for 3003 Al–Mn alloy upon a wide range of strain rates and temperatures

The uniaxial compressive responses of 3003 Al–Mn alloy upon strain rates ranging from 0.001/s to about 10⁴/s with initial temperatures from 77 K to 800 K were investigated. Instron servohydraulic testing machine and enhanced split Hopkinson bar facilities have been employed in such uniaxial compressive loading tests. The maximum true strain up to 80% has been achieved. The following observations have been obtained from the experimental results: 1) 3003 Al–Mn alloy presents remarkable ductility and plasticity at low temperatures and high strain rates; 2) its plastic flow stress strongly depends on the applied temperatures and strain rates; 3) the temperature history during deformation strongly affects the microstructure evolution within the material. Finally, paralleled with the systematic experimental investigations, a physically-based model was developed based on the mechanism of dislocation kinetics. The model predictions are compared with the experimental results, and a good agreement has been observed.     

Response of moving load due to irregularity in slightly compressible,finitely deformed elastic media

The present paper has been framed to study the stresses produced on the rough surface of a slightly compressible, finitely deformed half space due to a normal moving load. The surface of the medium is irregular with parabolic type of irregularity. The perturbation method is applied to find the displacement field. The normal and shear stresses have been obtained in closed form and discussed numerically by means of figures. It has been observed that the shear stress developed at different depths below the surface depends on the irregularity depth, frictional coefficient and irregularity factor of the rough surface of the medium. Also, surface plots have been drawn to analyze the combined variation of non-dimensional stresses and irregularity factor against depth.     

A nonlinear mechanics model of bio-inspired hierarchical lattice materials consisting of horseshoe microstructures

Development of advanced synthetic materials that can mimic the mechanical properties of non-mineralized soft biological materials has important implications in a wide range of technologies. Hierarchical lattice materials constructed with horseshoe microstructures belong to this class of bio-inspired synthetic materials, where the mechanical responses can be tailored to match the nonlinear J-shaped stress–strain curves of human skins. The underlying relations between the J-shaped stress–strain curves and their microstructure geometry are essential in designing such systems for targeted applications. Here, a theoretical model of this type of hierarchical lattice material is developed by combining a finite deformation constitutive relation of the building block (i.e., horseshoe microstructure), with the analyses of equilibrium and deformation compatibility in the periodical lattices. The nonlinear J-shaped stress–strain curves and Poisson ratios predicted by this model agree very well with results of finite element analyses (FEA) and experiment. Based on this model, analytic solutions were obtained for some key mechanical quantities, e.g., elastic modulus, Poisson ratio, peak modulus, and critical strain around which the tangent modulus increases rapidly. A negative Poisson effect is revealed in the hierarchical lattice with triangular topology, as opposed to a positive Poisson effect in hierarchical lattices with Kagome and honeycomb topologies. The lattice topology is also found to have a strong influence on the stress–strain curve. For the three isotropic lattice topologies (triangular, Kagome and honeycomb), the hierarchical triangular lattice material renders the sharpest transition in the stress–strain curve and relative high stretchability, given the same porosity and arc angle of horseshoe microstructure. Furthermore, a demonstrative example illustrates the utility of the developed model in the rapid optimization of hierarchical lattice materials for reproducing the desired stress–strain curves of human skins. This study provides theoretical guidelines for future designs of soft bio-mimetic materials with hierarchical lattice constructions.     

Design of metallic textile core sandwich panels

Metallic sandwich panels with textile cores have been analyzed subject to combined bending and shear and then designed for minimum weight. Basic results for the weight benefits relative to solid plates are presented, with emphasis on restricted optimizations that assure robustness (non-catastrophic failure) and acceptable thinness. Select numerical simulations are used to check the analytical results and to explore the role of strain hardening beyond failure initiation. Comparisons are made with competing concepts, especially honeycomb and truss core systems. It is demonstrated that all three systems have essentially equivalent performance. The influence on the design of a concentrated compressive stress that might crush the core has been explored and found to produce relatively small effect over the stress range of practical interest. “Angle ply” cores with members in the ±45° orientation are found to be near optimal for all combinations of bending, shear and compression.     

Analysis of creep deformation and creep damage in thin-walled branched shells from materials with different behavior in tension and compression

A constitutive model for describing the creep and creep damage in initially isotropic materials with different properties in tension and compression has been applied to the modeling of creep deformation and creep damage growth in thin-walled shells of revolution with the branched meridian. The approach of establishing the basic equations for axisymmetrically loaded branched shells under creep deformation and creep damage conditions has been introduced. To solve the initial/boundary-value problem, the fourth-order Runge–Kutta–Merson’s method of time integration with the combination of the numerically stable Godunov’s method of discrete orthogonalization is used. The solution of the boundary value problem for the branched shell at each time instant is reduced to integration of the series of systems of ordinary differential equations describing the deformation of each branch and the shell with basic meridian. Some numerical examples are considered, and the processes of creep deformation and creep damage growth in a shell with non-branched meridian as well as in a branched shell are analyzed. The influence of the tension–compression asymmetry on the stress–strain state and damage evolution in a shell with non-branched meridian as well as in a branched shell with time are discussed.     

An efficient computational method for vibration analysis of unsymmetric piecewise-linear dynamical systems with multiple degrees of freedom

This paper presents an efficient computational method for determining vibrational responses of piecewise-linear dynamical systems with multiple degrees of freedom (MDOF) and an arbitrary number of gap-activated springs. A time-domain solution is obtained using the Bozzak–Newmark numerical integration scheme. At each time step, an auxiliary displacement vector, complementary to the contact force vector, is introduced. With the help of a simple transformation, the vibration problem is reduced to a standard linear complementarity problem (LCP) for which an accurate solution can be obtained. Responses of an SDOF system with a gap-activated spring and a 3-DOF system with three gap-activated springs under harmonic excitations are obtained using the proposed method, and compared with the results in the literature. Good agreement is observed. The proposed method has also been successfully applied to a piecewise linear dynamical system with 1000 DOF’s and 1000 gap-activated springs under harmonic excitations.     

Effect of irregularity and heterogeneity on the stresses produced due to a normal moving load on a rough monoclinic half-space

The present study aims to study the normal and shear stresses produced in a rough irregular heterogeneous monoclinic half-space due to a normal moving load. Closed form expressions of normal and shear stresses have been obtained. It is observed that both normal stress and shear stress are affected not only by depth, the frictional coefficient on a rough surface, and the maximum depth of irregularity but also by the heterogeneity and types of irregularity in the medium. The comparative study has been made to analyze the effect of different types of irregularity on both the stresses. There is a significant effect of depth, frictional coefficient, heterogeneity, maximum depth of irregularity and irregularity factor on the normal and shear stresses in both heterogeneous monoclinic and heterogeneous isotropic medium. A comparison is made to study the effects of the said parameters on the normal and shear stress produced in both heterogeneous medium. These effects are highlighted and depicted by means of graphs. As a special case of the problem, the stress produced due to normal moving load in an isotropic half-space with and without heterogeneity, irregularity has been discussed.     

Permeability of open-cell foams under compressive strain

A model for the behavior of low-density, open-cell foam under compressive strain is proposed. Using this model, a tractable relationship between the normalized permeability and the applied strain is developed. An experimental study of the effect of strain on the permeability of open-cell polyurethane foams is presented. The experiments are performed using a Newtonian fluid in the fully laminar regime, where viscous forces are assumed to dominate. The model is found to describe the experimental data well and be independent of the foam cell size, the direction of flow with respect to the foam rise direction, and the properties of the saturating fluid. In a companion paper, the model for the permeability of open-cell foam is combined with Darcy’s law to give the contribution of viscous fluid flow to the stress–strain response of a reticulated foam under dynamic loading.     

波形整形器在酚醛树脂的霍普金森压杆实验中的应用

利用霍普金森压杆在室温下进行了应变为 10 2 ～ 10 3 s-1的冲击压缩实验 ,同时采用波形整形器使入射波的上升沿变宽 ,更好地满足试件中应力应变均匀分布的条件 ,使实验更接近常应变率加载的条件。结果表明 ,酚醛树脂是一种应变率敏感材料 ,在室温下和高应变率下表现出冲击脆化的特征。     

Quasi-static crush behavior of aluminum honeycomb specimens under non-proportional compression-dominant combined loads

The quasi-static crush behavior of aluminum 5052-H38 honeycomb specimens under non-proportional compression-dominant combined loads is investigated by experiments. A test fixture was designed such that dominant compressive and shear loads with respect to the strongest material symmetry direction can be controlled and applied independently. Compression-dominant combined loads and pure compressive loads were applied in different sequences to induce non-proportional combined loads. The experimental results show that the normal crush and shear strengths in combined loading regions and the normal crush strengths in pure compressive loading regions of the non-proportional combined loads are quite consistent with the existing phenomenological yield criterion based on the experimental normal crush and shear strengths under proportional combined loads. The experimental results also indicate that the sequence of loading paths for the non-proportional combined loads does not affect the crush strengths when compared with those obtained under proportional combined loads. In addition, the experimental results indicate that the non-normality plastic flow behavior of honeycomb specimens under non-proportional combined loads is consistent with that under proportional combined loads. Finally, specimens crushed under non-proportional combined loads show developments of different stacking patterns of folds in different loading regions of the non-proportional combined loads. The experimental results suggest that the incremental stress–strain relation for the transition loading path within the so-called yield surface from one yield state to another may be related to the displacement increments that correspond to the change of microscopic folding mechanisms instead of the usual elastic relation according to the classical plasticity theory.     

Approximate analysis of progressive deformation in honeycomb structures subjected to in-plane loading

Progressive deformation of honeycomb structures subjected to in-plane loading was approximately analyzed by using the collapse modes of hexagonal unit cells. The collapse modes were categorized as freely compressive, restricted compressive, and shear. Moreover, there were five characteristic deformation patterns, namely deformation bands. Average stresses of the collapsing honeycomb models were evaluated in terms of the plastic collapse stress per hinge and total number of hinges of progressively arising deformation bands. The displacements of the models were obtained by multiplying the displacement per cell with the number of collapsed cells. The present method was used to analyze progressive deformation of typical honeycomb structures. The validity of the stress–displacement relations derived for some structures was confirmed by comparing them with finite element method (FEM) results. Our method is much simpler than FEM but just as effective.     

A unified expression of elastic–plastic notch stress–strain calculation in bodies subjected to multiaxial cyclic loading

In this paper, a simplified thermodynamics analysis of cyclic plastic deformation is performed in order to establish an energy transition relation for describing the elastic–plastic stress and strain behavior of the notch-tip material element in bodies subjected to multiaxial cyclic loads. Based on the thermodynamics analysis, it is deduced that in the case of elastic–plastic deformation, Neuber’s rule inevitably overestimates the actual stress and strain at the notch tip, while the equivalent strain energy density (ESED) method tends to underestimate the actual notch-tip stress and strain. According to the actual energy conversion occurring in the notch-tip material element during cyclic plastic deformation, a unified expression for estimating the elastic–plastic notch stress–strain responses in bodies subjected to multiaxial cyclic loads is developed, of which Neuber’s rule and the ESED method become two particular cases, i.e. upper and lower bound limits of the notch stress and strain estimations. This expression is verified experimentally under both proportional and non-proportional multiaxial cyclic loads and a good agreement between the calculated and the measured notch strains has been achieved. It is also shown that in the case of multiaxial cyclic loading, the unified expression distinctly improves the accuracy of the notch-tip stress–strain estimations in comparison with Neuber’s rule and the ESED method. The unified expression of the notch stress–strain calculation developed in this paper can thus provide a more logical approximate approach for estimating the elastic–plastic notch-tip stress and strain responses of components subjected to lengthy multiaxial cyclic loading histories for local strain approach-based fatigue-crack-initiation life prediction.     

Elliptical and circular FRP-confined concrete sections: A Mohr–Coulomb analytical model

An analytical stress–strain model is developed for predicting the compressive behavior of elliptical and circular fiber reinforced polymer (FRP)-confined concrete members. The model is based on a diagonal Poisson’s ratio formulation expressed as a function of the mechanical properties of the unconfined concrete and confining FRP jacket, the geometry of the concrete section, and the extent of internal damage in the confined concrete core. A Mohr–Coulomb yield criterion is introduced for analysis of the compressive behavior of confined concrete. Equilibrium and strain compatibility are used to obtain the ultimate compressive strength and strain of elliptical and circular FRP-confined concrete sections as a function of the effective confining stiffness of the FRP jacket. A simplified expression is derived for the FRP reinforcement ratio which precludes strain softening in elliptical and circular FRP-confined concrete sections.     

An analytical molecular structural mechanics model for the mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes

An analytical molecular structural mechanics model for the prediction of mechanical properties of defect-free carbon nanotubes is developed by incorporating the modified Morse potential with an analytical molecular structural model. The developed model is capable of predicting Young’s moduli, Poisson’s ratios and stress–strain relationships of carbon nanotubes under tension and torsion loading conditions. Results on the mechanical properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes show that Young’s moduli of carbon nanotubes are sensitive to the tube diameter and the helicity. Young’s moduli of both armchair and zigzag carbon nanotubes increase monotonically and approach Young’s modulus of graphite when the tube diameter is increased. The nonlinear stress–strain relationships for defect-free nanotubes have been predicted, which gives a good approximation on the ultimate strength and strain to failure of nanotubes. Armchair nanotubes exhibit higher tensile strength than zigzag nanotubes but their torsion strengths are identical based on the present study. The present theoretical investigation provides a very simple approach to predict the mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes.     

Inelastic responses of a two-bar system with temperature-dependent elastic modulus under cyclic thermomechanical loadings

This paper is concerned with the elastic plastic response of a two-bar system with temperature-dependent elastic coefficients under cyclic thermomechanical loadings. Such materials are characterized by lack of results concerning the asymptotic behaviors and conditions for shakedown occurrence. This study shows that the considered simple structure is sufficiently complex to experience different periodic long-term behaviors as in classical elastoplasticity. In order to understand how Melan–Koiter method works for such materials, the evolution of the structure’s response until the stabilization of the plastic strain (‘shakedown’) or the asymptotic dissipative behavior (‘alternating plasticity’ or ‘ratcheting’) is analytically addressed and the Bree diagram is then constructed. The main result of this work is that the residual stress and strain fields are time-dependent even when shakedown occurs. Besides, we proved that Halphen’s conjecture (Halphen, 2005) giving a sufficient condition for shakedown occurrence is not a necessary condition. Finally, numerical results performed by an incremental finite element procedure are presented.     

Thermomechanical cyclic behavior modeling of Cu-Al-Be SMA materials and structures

This paper concerns the behavior of Cu-Al-Be polycrystalline shape memory alloys under cyclic thermomechanical loadings. Sometimes, as shown by many experimental observations, a permanent inelastic strain occurs and increases with the number of cycles. A series of cyclic thermomechanical tests has been carried out and the origin of the residual strain has been identified as residual martensite. These observations have been used to develop a 3D macroscopic model for the superelasticity and stress assisted memory effect of SMAs able to describe the evolution of permanent inelastic strain during cycles. The model has been implemented in a finite elements code and used to simulate the behavior of antagonistic actuators based on SMA springs under cyclic thermomechanical loading with a residual displacement appearance.     

THE NONLINEAR MAGNETOELASTIC PROPERTIES OF 〈 110 〉 ORIENTED TBo.27DYo.73FE1.95 POLYCRYSTALLINE ALLOYS UNDER COUPLED MAGNETOMECHANICAL LOADING

In the paper, the nonlinear magnetoelastic properties of composition Tb0.27Dy0.73 Fel.95 〈 110 〉 oriented polycrystalline alloys are investigated under coupled loads of high mag- netic field and compressive stress. The magnetization and magnetostriction are measured simul- taneously under applied magnetic field from -800 to 800 kA/m and compressive stress from 0 to 25 MPa at room temperature. The strain coefficient and relative permeability are obtained by differential calculation from the experimental curves. The results show that the values of satura- tion magnetization （M~） under different compressive stresses remain invariably constant in the region of the high magnetic field. The saturation magnetostriction （As） increases with increasing compressive stress and reaches 1680 ~ 10-6 under 25 MPa. According to the increase of the com- pressive stress, the hysteretic loop area of magnetization and magnetostriction increases, while the maximum relative permeability and strain coefficient decrease. Additionally, the influence of the bias magnetic field on the mechanical property is taken into account. The stress-strain relation- ship is nonlinear and sensitive to the applied external magnetic fields along the axis of rod. The results obtained are a useful complement to the existing experiments for theoretical approaches and engineering applications.