SOLID-SHELL FINITE ELEMENT MODELS FOR EXPLICIT SIMULATIONS OF CRACK PROPAGATION IN THIN STRUCTURES

Crack propagation in thin shell structures due to cutting is conveniently simulated using explicit finite element approaches, in view of the high nonlinearity of the problem. Solidshell elements are usually preferred for the discretization in the presence of complex material behavior and degradation phenomena such as delamination, since they allow for a correct representation of the thickness geometry. However, in solid-shell elements the small thickness leads to a very high maximum eigenfrequency, which imply very small stable time-steps. A new selective mass scaling technique is proposed to increase the time-step size without affecting accuracy. New ”directional” cohesive interface elements are used in conjunction with selective mass scaling to account for the interaction with a sharp blade in cutting processes of thin ductile shells

A Coupled Lattice Boltzmann-Volume Penalization for Flows Past Fixed Solid Obstacles with Local Mesh Refinement

A coupled Lattice Boltzmann-Volume Penalization (LBM-VP) with local mesh refinement is presented to simulate flows past obstacles in this article. Based on the finite-difference LBM, the local mesh refinement is incorporated into the LBM to improve computing efficiency. The volume penalization method is introduced into the LBM by an external forcing term. In the LBM-VP method, the processes of interpolating velocities on the boundaries points and distributing the force density to the Eulerian points near the boundaries are unnecessary. Performing the LBM-VP on a certain point, only the variables of this point are needed, which means the whole procedure can be conducted parallelly. As a consequence, the whole computing efficiency can be improved. To verify the presented method, flows past a single circular cylinder, a pair of cylinders in tandem arrangement, and a NACA-0012 are investigated. A good agreement between the present results and the data in the previous literatures is achieved, which demonstrates the accuracy and effectiveness of the present method to solve the flows past obstacle problems

Using the Sharp Operator for edge detection and nonlinear diffusion

In this paper we investigate the use of the sharp function known from functional analysis in image processing. The sharp function gives a measure of the variations of a function and can be used as an edge detector. We extend the classical notion of the sharp function for measuring anisotropic behaviour and give a fast anisotropic edge detection variant inspired by the sharp function. We show that these edge detection results are useful to steer isotropic and anisotropic nonlinear diffusion filters for image enhancement

Computing the force distribution on the surface of complex, deforming geometries using vortex methods and Brinkman penalization

The distribution of forces on the surface of complex, deforming geometries is an invaluable output of flow simulations. One particular example of such geometries involves self-propelled swimmers. Surface forces can provide significant information about the flow field sensed by the swimmers, and are difficult to obtain experimentally. At the same time, simulations of flow around complex, deforming shapes can be computationally prohibitive when body-fitted grids are used. Alternatively, such simulations may employ penalization techniques. Penalization methods rely on simple Cartesian grids to discretize the governing equations, which are enhanced by a penalty term to account for the boundary conditions. They have been shown to provide a robust estimation of mean quantities, such as drag and propulsion velocity, but the computation of surface force distribution remains a challenge. We present a method for determining flow- induced forces on the surface of both rigid and deforming bodies, in simulations using re-meshed vortex methods and Brinkman penalization. The pressure field is recovered from the velocity by solving a Poisson's equation using the Green's function approach, augmented with a fast multipole expansion and a tree- code algorithm. The viscous forces are determined by evaluating the strain-rate tensor on the surface of deforming bodies, and on a 'lifted' surface in simulations involving rigid objects. We present results for benchmark flows demonstrating that we can obtain an accurate distribution of flow-induced surface-forces. The capabilities of our method are demonstrated using simulations of self-propelled swimmers, where we obtain the pressure and shear distribution on their deforming surfaces

High-resolution numerical modelling of flow-vegetation interactions

In this paper, we present and apply a new three-dimensional model for the prediction of canopy-flow and turbulence dynamics in open-channel flow. The approach uses a dynamic immersed boundary technique that is coupled in a sequentially staggered manner to a large eddy simulation. Two different biomechanical models are developed depending on whether the vegetation is dominated by bending or tensile forces. For bending plants, a model structured on the Euler–Bernoulli beam equation has been developed, whilst for tensile plants, an N-pendula model has been developed. Validation against flume data shows good agreement and demonstrates that for a given stem density, the models are able to simulate the extraction of energy from the mean flow at the stem-scale which leads to the drag discontinuity and associated mixing layer