Parametrized reduced order modeling for cracked solids

A parametrized reduced order modeling methodology for cracked two dimensional solids is presented, where the parameters correspond to geometric properties of the crack, such as location and size. The method follows the offline‐online paradigm, where in the offline, training phase, solutions are obtained for a set of parameter values, corresponding to specific crack configurations and a basis for a lower dimensional solution space is created. Then in the online phase, this basis is used to obtain solutions for configurations that do not lie in the training set. The use of the same basis for different crack geometries is rendered possible by defining a reference configuration and employing mesh morphing to map the reference to different target configurations. To enable the application to complex geometries, a mesh morphing technique is introduced, based on inverse distance weighting, which increases computational efficiency and allows for special treatment of boundaries. Applications in linear elastic fracture mechanics are considered, with the extended finite element method being used to represent discontinuous and asymptotic fields.ISSN:1097-0207ISSN:0029-598

Final Report to NSF of the Standards for Facial Animation Workshop

The human face is an important and complex communication channel. It is a very familiar and sensitive object of human perception. The facial animation field has increased greatly in the past few years as fast computer graphics workstations have made the modeling and real-time animation of hundreds of thousands of polygons affordable and almost commonplace. Many applications have been developed such as teleconferencing, surgery, information assistance systems, games, and entertainment. To solve these different problems, different approaches for both animation control and modeling have been developed

Sandwich core periodic cell topology effects

Les panneaux composites sandwich possédant une âme nid d'abeille permettent de disposer à la fois de propriétés statiques hors plan intéressantes (en raison de leur rigidité équivalente élevée) et de caractéristiques de masses faibles. Pour cette raison, ils sont largement utilisés dans les industries aérospatiale, automobile et navale. Les environnements dans lesquels ces matériaux sont utilisés mettent en jeu des efforts dans des gammes de fréquences larges. Si un rapport rigidité / masse élevé est profitable dans le domaine des basses fréquences, il conduit généralement à des comportements vibratoires et acoustiques médiocres lorsque la fréquence d’excitation augmente. La question abordée dans ce travail peut être formulée comme : comment les concepts périodiques peuvent-ils améliorer les signatures vibroacoustiques large bande et les performances de ces structures ? La plupart des solutions vibroacoustiques sont limitées en terme de bande de fréquences d’efficacité, et induisent généralement un ajout de masse. La prise en compte de règles de conception vibroacoustiques à un stade précoce du développement du produit est l'un des principaux objectifs de recherche en vue d’améliorer leurs performances et permettrait de concevoir des structures accordées sans aucune intervention ultérieure ou augmentation de masse. Ce travail se concentre donc sur l'étude des topologies de base de panneaux sandwich existants et a pour objectif de créer de nouvelles structures améliorées. La recherche a été menée en essayant de maintenir les propriétés structurelles souhaitées, ce qui justifie l'utilisation d'une telle solution en premier lieu, mais également en considérant son utilisation potentielle comme plate-forme pour la mise en place d’inserts de matériaux périodiques résonants. Ces noyaux cellulaires ont été fabriqués en utilisant la technique du Kirigami (qui est une variante de l'Origami) : il s’agit d’une ancienne technique japonaise qui consiste à créer des structures 3D en pliant et en découpant une feuille de matériau 2D. Cette technique de fabrication peut être utilisée comme un moyen systématique de produire des configurations générales en nid d'abeilles avec des composites à fibres longues par thermoformage et / ou autoclavage. Le principal indicateur utilisé ici afin d’évaluer les performances vibroacoustiques des topologies innovantes proposées est le nombre et la plage de bandes d'arrêt, également connues sous le nom de bandes interdites, qui décrivent les plages de fréquences dans lesquelles les ondes élastiques ne peuvent pas se propager dans la structure. Ce manuscrit est organisé en cinq chapitres. Le premier consiste en un bref aperçu des structures périodiques dans les différents domaines d'ingénierie. L'accent est mis sur les panneaux sandwich et leurs techniques de fabrication les plus populaires sera également décrit. Le deuxième chapitre présentera au lecteur le concept de propagation des ondes élastiques dans les milieux périodiques. De plus, des phénomènes comme les interférences de Bragg ou les bandes interdites résonantes seront présentés ainsi que la théorie de Floquet-Bloch appliquée aux structures à périodiques typiquement utilisées dans l’aéronautique. Cette dernière dérivation mathématique sera fusionnée avec l'approche d'analyse par éléments finis et mise en œuvre comme base pour les outils de prédiction numérique spécialement développés afin de permettre la réalisation d’investigations paramétriques sur des panneaux sandwich complets ou des cœurs nus. La théorie de Floquet-Bloch permet de récolter des informations cruciales sur le comportement dynamique de l’ensemble de la structure en n’effectuant l’analyse que sur une petite partie de celle-ci (cellule unitaire).[...]Honeycomb sandwich panels are well known to provide interesting static out of plane properties because of their high equivalent stiffness whilst containing mass and for this reason, they are widely used as a ‘building brick’ in the Aerospace, Automotive and Naval industries. The environment in which these materials operate involve external forces which excites them in the mid-low frequency range. However, while a high stiffness/mass ratio is a desirable static property, the vibration frequency domain is usually in the high range and therefore they become poor mechanical and acoustic insulators within the frequency range they are usually subjected to. The question addressed then is simple: how periodic concepts can improve the broadband vibroacoustic signatures and performances of those structures? Most of vibroacoustic solutions are frequency band limited, specific and usually include the addition of mass, which for certain engineering segments is disadvantageous. Including vibroacoustic design rules at early stage of product development is one of the main research targets to improve their performance and would allow to design tuned structures without any later intervention or mass increment. This work focuses on investigating existing sandwich panel core topologies and attempt to create novel improved structures. The research was carried out trying to maintain the desired structural properties which justifies the usage of such solution in the first place but also considering its potential use as a platform for Multiphysics resonating periodic material inserts. Such cellular cores were manufactured using Kirigami, which is a variation of Origami, an ancient Japanese technique that consists in creating 3D structures by folding a 2D sheet of material. This manufacturing technique can be used as a systematic way to produce general honeycomb configurations with off-the-shelf long fibre composites by thermoforming and/or autoclaving. The main indicator on which I will focus to evaluate the vibroacoustic performance of the proposed innovative topologies will be the number and range of stopbands, also known as a bandgaps, which describe the frequency ranges in which elastic waves are not transmitted within the structure, in combination with the constituent material and its damping properties. This manuscript is organised in five chapters. The first one consists of a brief overview on periodic structures in the various engineering domains. Emphasis on Sandwich panels and their most popular manufacturing techniques will also be described. The second chapter will introduce the reader to the concept of elastic wave propagation in periodic media. Also, phenomena like Bragg or resonant bandgaps will be explained as well as the Floquet-Bloch theory applied to macro-scale structures such as aeronautical cellular cores.[...

The VHP-F Computational Phantom and its Applications for Electromagnetic Simulations

Modeling of the electromagnetic, structural, thermal, or acoustic response of the human body to various external and internal stimuli is limited by the availability of anatomically accurate and numerically efficient computational models. The models currently approved for use are generally of proprietary or fixed format, preventing new model construction or customization. 1. This dissertation develops a new Visible Human Project - Female (VHP-F) computational phantom, constructed via segmentation of anatomical cryosection images taken in the axial plane of the human body. Its unique property is superior resolution on human head. In its current form, the VHP-F model contains 33 separate objects describing a variety of human tissues within the head and torso. Each obejct is a non-intersecting 2-manifold model composed of contiguous surface triangular elements making the VHP-F model compatible with major commercial and academic numerical simulators employing the Finite Element Method (FEM), Boundary Element Method (BEM), Finite Volume Method (FVM), and Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) Method. 2. This dissertation develops a new workflow used to construct the VHP-F model that may be utilized to build accessible custom models from any medical image data source. The workflow is customizable and flexible, enabling the creation of standard and parametrically varying models facilitating research on impacts associated with fluctuation of body characteristics (for example, skin thickness) and dynamic processes such as fluid pulsation. 3. This dissertation identifies, enables, and quantifies three new specific computational bioelectromagnetic problems, each of which is solved with the help of the developed VHP-F model: I. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) of human brain motor cortex with extracephalic versus cephalic electrodes; II. RF channel characterization within cerebral cortex with novel small on-body directional antennas; III. Body Area Network (BAN) characterization and RF localization within the human body using the FDTD method and small antenna models with coincident phase centers. Each of those problems has been (or will be) the subject of a separate dedicated MS thesis

A system for modelling deformable procedural shapes.

This thesis presents a new procedural paradigm for modelling. The method combines the benefit of compact object descriptions found in procedural modelling along with the advantage of the ability to interact in real-time as is found with interactive modelling techniques. The three main components to this paradigm are geometry generators (the creation of basic object shapes), selectors (the specification of a selection volume), and modifiers (the object transformation functions). The user interacts in real-time with the object, and has complete control over the object formation process. Interaction is stored within appropriate nodes in a creation-history list which can be replayed or partially replayed at any time during the creation process. The parameters associated with each interaction are stored within the node, and are available for editing at any time during the creation process. The concepts presented here remove the problems that most modelling software have, in that the arbitrary editing of object parameters is destructive, in the sense that changing the parameter of one node may cause the object to behave unpredictably. This takes place in real-time, rather than off-line. In some cases real-time interaction is made possible by trading visual quality vs. speed of rendering. This results in the object being rendered at a lower quality, and therefore decisions on whether the object parameters need adjustment may be predicated upon a poor representation of the object. The work presented herein attempts to bridge the divide between the two approaches by providing the user with a powerful and descriptive procedural modelling language that is entirely generated through real-time interaction with the geometric object via an intuitive user interface. The main contributions of this work are that it allows: Procedural objects are specified interactively. Modelling takes place independently of representation (meaning the user does not base their modelling on the (mesh) representation, but rather on the shape they see). Changes to the object are coherent and non-destructive

Modelling and Animation using Partial Differential Equations. Geometric modelling and computer animation of virtual characters using elliptic partial differential equations.

This work addresses various applications pertaining to the design, modelling and animation of parametric surfaces using elliptic Partial Differential Equations (PDE) which are produced via the PDE method. Compared with traditional surface generation techniques, the PDE method is an effective technique that can represent complex three-dimensional (3D) geometries in terms of a relatively small set of parameters. A PDE-based surface can be produced from a set of pre-configured curves that are used as the boundary conditions to solve a number of PDE. An important advantage of using this method is that most of the information required to define a surface is contained at its boundary. Thus, complex surfaces can be computed using only a small set of design parameters. In order to exploit the advantages of this methodology various applications were developed that vary from the interactive design of aircraft configurations to the animation of facial expressions in a computer-human interaction system that utilizes an artificial intelligence (AI) bot for real time conversation. Additional applications of generating cyclic motions for PDE based human character integrated in a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) package as well as developing techniques to describe a given mesh geometry by a set of boundary conditions, required to evaluate the PDE method, are presented. Each methodology presents a novel approach for interacting with parametric surfaces obtained by the PDE method. This is due to the several advantages this surface generation technique has to offer. Additionally, each application developed in this thesis focuses on a specific target that delivers efficiently various operations in the design, modelling and animation of such surfaces.The project files will not be available online

A survey of free software for the design, analysis, modelling, and simulation of an unmanned aerial vehicle

The objective of this paper is to analyze free software for the design, analysis, modelling, and simulation of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Free software is the best choice when the reduction of production costs is necessary; nevertheless, the quality of free software may vary. This paper probably does not include all of the free software, but tries to describe or mention at least the most interesting programs. The first part of this paper summarizes the essential knowledge about UAVs, including the fundamentals of flight mechanics and aerodynamics, and the structure of a UAV system. The second section generally explains the modelling and simulation of a UAV. In the main section, more than 50 free programs for the design, analysis, modelling, and simulation of a UAV are described. Although the selection of the free software has been focused on small subsonic UAVs, the software can also be used for other categories of aircraft in some cases; e.g. for MAVs and large gliders. The applications with an historical importance are also included. Finally, the results of the analysis are evaluated and discussed—a block diagram of the free software is presented, possible connections between the programs are outlined, and future improvements of the free software are suggested. © 2015, CIMNE, Barcelona, Spain.Internal Grant Agency of Tomas Bata University in Zlin [IGA/FAI/2015/001, IGA/FAI/2014/006