14,784 research outputs found
Homogenization of plain weave composites with imperfect microstructure: Part II--Analysis of real-world materials
A two-layer statistically equivalent periodic unit cell is offered to predict
a macroscopic response of plain weave multilayer carbon-carbon textile
composites. Falling-short in describing the most typical geometrical
imperfections of these material systems the original formulation presented in
(Zeman and \v{S}ejnoha, International Journal of Solids and Structures, 41
(2004), pp. 6549--6571) is substantially modified, now allowing for nesting and
mutual shift of individual layers of textile fabric in all three directions.
Yet, the most valuable asset of the present formulation is seen in the
possibility of reflecting the influence of negligible meso-scale porosity
through a system of oblate spheroidal voids introduced in between the two
layers of the unit cell. Numerical predictions of both the effective thermal
conductivities and elastic stiffnesses and their comparison with available
laboratory data and the results derived using the Mori-Tanaka averaging scheme
support credibility of the present approach, about as much as the reliability
of local mechanical properties found from nanoindentation tests performed
directly on the analyzed composite samples.Comment: 28 pages, 14 figure
2D approach for modelling self-potential anomalies. Application to synthetic and real data
The aim of this work is to present a 2-D Matlab code based on the finite element method
for providing numerical modelling of both groundwater flow and self-potential signals.
The distribution of the self-potential is obtained by starting with the solution of the
groundwater flow, then computing the source current density, and finally calculating
the electrical potential. The reliability of the algorithm is tested with synthetic case
studies in order to simulate both the electric field resulting from the existence of a leak
in the dam and SP signals associated with a pumping test in an unconfined aquifer. In
addition, the algorithm was applied to field data for the localization of piping sinkholes.
The results show that the outputs of the algorithm yielded satisfactory solutions, which
are in good agreement with those of previous studies and field investigations. In details,
the synthetic data and SP anomalies calculated by using the code are very close in
terms of sign and magnitude, while real data tests clearly indicated that the computed
SP signals were found to be consistent with the measured values
Heat transport with advection in fractured rock
In the transport of heat in porous media, diffusion generally dominates over advection due to slow fluid velocities imposed by low permeability. This is the reason why standard Galerkin formulation leading to extra non-symmetric matrix terms may be still used successfully. However, in the presence of fractures the situation may be different. Fractures constitute preferential flow paths where fluid velocities may be significant and advection may become dominant over diffusion (“large advection” with Péclet number >1). This paper focuses on the formulation, numerical implementation and verification of a model to solve the steady-state heat transport problem with large advection along geomechanical discontinuities represented by zero-thickness interface elements. The fluid velocity field is considered as known input data (no hydraulic coupling). The existing SUPG method is modified for its application to zero-thickness interface elements, and the resulting formulation is implemented in an existing FE geomechanical code. An example of application is presented with large advection along a discontinuity crossing a low permeability domain. The results show that the proposed approach leads to stable results, in contrast to standard Galerkin
The mechanical response of cellular materials with spinodal topologies
The mechanical response of cellular materials with spinodal topologies is
numerically and experimentally investigated. Spinodal microstructures are
generated by the numerical solution of the Cahn-Hilliard equation. Two
different topologies are investigated: "solid models," where one of the two
phases is modeled as a solid material and the remaining volume is void space;
and "shell models," where the interface between the two phases is assumed to be
a solid shell, with the rest of the volume modeled as void space. In both
cases, a wide range of relative densities and spinodal characteristic feature
sizes are investigated. The topology and morphology of all the numerically
generated models are carefully characterized to extract key geometrical
features and ensure that the distribution of curvatures and the aging law are
consistent with the physics of spinodal decomposition. Finite element meshes
are generated for each model, and the uniaxial compressive stiffness and
strength are extracted. We show that while solid spinodal models in the density
range of 30-70% are relatively inefficient (i.e., their strength and stiffness
exhibit a high-power scaling with relative density), shell spinodal models in
the density range of 0.01-1% are exceptionally stiff and strong. Spinodal shell
materials are also shown to be remarkably imperfection insensitive. These
findings are verified experimentally by in-situ uniaxial compression of
polymeric samples printed at the microscale by Direct Laser Writing (DLW). At
low relative densities, the strength and stiffness of shell spinodal models
outperform those of most lattice materials and approach theoretical bounds for
isotropic cellular materials. Most importantly, these materials can be produced
by self-assembly techniques over a range of length scales, providing unique
scalability
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