Evolution of nonlocal damage in steel under cyclic straining

For high dynamic excitation, e.g. by earthquakes, the vibrations of steel structures lead to inelastic material behavior. Hystereses, developing under cyclic loading, are responsible for the dissipation of energy. Additionally, stress concentration at small defects results in the nucleation and the growth of microvoids which is referred to as damage, here especially as ultra low cycle fatigue. The material damage influences the stiffness of a structure and its response to dynamic excitation. With increasing load the voids can coalesce and form a macrocrack which destroys the structural integrity and peril the overall safety. A material model is proposed which describes the evolution and distribution of inelastic strains and isotropic ductile damage for mild construction steel by means of a set of internal variables. Viscoplasticity as well as isotropic and kinematic hardening are taken into account. The evolution of isotropic hardening is related to the growth of a strain memory surface which accounts for the strain amplitude history of the material. Under tension isotropic ductile damage develops for significant inelastic strains [1]. The material model is implemented in the frameworks of the finite element method with displacement based ansatz functions. The equation of motion is solved with the Newmark method. To overcome the phenomenon of vanishing dissipation energy in case of mesh refinement due to strain localization a nonlocal extension in the form of an implicit gradient formulation is applied. The presented model is used to analyse 3D structures subjected to seismic excitation

Phosphate turnover during anaerobic digestion of chicken, pig and dairy manure

Phosphate (P) is used extensively in agriculture. This has led to a reliance on P imports. Meanwhile, the framework for fertilization with digestate and manure in the European Union has become more stringent in recent years. Therefore, nutrients should be recovered as fertilizer to reduce dependencies, redistribute nutrient and amplify the product portfolio of biogas plants. Current nutrient recovery processes have in common that they are post digestion treatments of digestate, which neglect the phosphate behavior during digestion. It is necessary to closely evaluate P behavior during AD to optimize post digestion treatments of digestate by using digestion as a pretreatment for digestate. Therefore, it was the overall objective of this work to evaluate the turnover of P during anaerobic digestion in laboratory scale batch and continuous digestion systems. In laboratory experiments with batch reactor systems three different manures, namely pig, dairy and chicken manure were digested. Activated sludge served as inoculum. A set of 120 mL batch digesters were filled and individual bottles were opened after defined times and discarded afterwards until the last reactors were opened on day 30. The results showed that H2O-P and NaHCO3-P decreased over the digestion period by up to 40.1 %. Meanwhile, NaOH-P increased. Overall, it could be concluded that anaerobic digestion leads to a mineralization of P. The mineralization was especially profound during the first few days after the substrate was mixed with the inoculum, concluding that the ions in the inoculum played a significant role in this mineralization. In effect, AD reduces immediate plant availability but increases slow-release fertilization effects. During the batch experiments it was found that for a defined measurement wavelength for digestate the absorbance spectrum of digestate extracts needed to be analyzed and a drying temperature needed to be determined for sample treatment. For the evaluation of these two aspects samples were dried at 50°C and at 105°C and freeze dried. These samples and undried digestate were extracted by Hedley fractionation. The coloring agent was added to the extracts and the spectra between 600 nm and 1100 nm were measured. The spectral lines showed two peaks (709 nm and 889 nm). The lower wavelength proved to be more stable at low absorbance, making this the better wavelength for analysis. The analysis of the Hedley extracts showed that drying increases the H2O-P and NaHCO3-P fraction by up to 70 %. The samples were rinsed with preceding solvent to increase accuracy. Overall, the adapted method achieved higher accuracy for H2O-P, NaHCO3-P than the former method. The adapted fractionation was used for the analysis of samples during experiments in continuously stirred tank reactors. Chicken and dairy manure were each co-digested with straw and the parameters OLR and temperature were varied. The results showed that OLR had a negative correlation with H2O-P, which decreased by up to 50.49 %. Meanwhile, HCl-P increased significantly in chicken manure digestate, showing a positive correlation with OLR. It was proven that temperature has a minor effect on P transformation with a slightly higher mineralization of P under thermophilic conditions. Especially the high calcium concentration in chicken manure dominated the P turnover during the digestion, which can also be seen in the positive correlation of OLR with HCl-P as well as a high Pearson correlation coefficient above 0.85 for calcium and phosphate in chicken manure digestion. The results of this work have proven that P changes its chemical composition significantly during anaerobic digestion. The parameters of the digestion process had a decisive effect on the final composition with OLR and substrate composition being the major drivers. The results further showed that gas production and high P solubility are in conflict because for increased H2O-P OLR needs to be reduced. Future work should focus specifically on the combination of this anaerobic digestion and post-digestion treatments for cost effective recovery. This can play a key role for future profitability of biogas projects.Phosphat (P) wird in großem Umfang in der Landwirtschaft verwendet. Das hat zu Anhängigkeiten von P importen geführt. Gleichzeitig wurde der rechtliche Rahmen zur Düngung mit Gärrest und Gülle in der Europäischen Union in den letzten Jahres strenger. Daher sollten Nährstoffe aus Gärresten zurückgewonnen werden um die Abhängigkeiten zu reduzieren, Nährstoffe neu zu verteilen und das Produktportfolie von Biogasanlagen zu erweitern. Bei derzeitigen Verfahren zur Nährstoffrückgewinnung handelt es sich um Nachbehandlungen von Gärresten, die das Verhalten von Phosphat während der Vergärung vernachlässigen. Es ist erforderlich, das P-Verhalten während der anaeroben Vergärung genau zu untersuchen, um die Nachbehandlung von Gärresten zu optimieren, indem die Vergärung als Vorbehandlung genutzt wird. Daher war die Gesamtzielsetzung dieser Arbeit die P Umwandlung während der anaeroben Vergärung in Batch- und kontinuierlichen Vergärungssystemen im Labormaßstab zu analysieren. In Laborexperimenten mit Batch-Reaktorsystemen wurden drei verschiedene tierische Exkremente, Schweine-, Rinder- und Hühnermist, vergoren. Belebtschlamm diente als Inokulum. Mehrere 120 mL Batch-Fermenter wurde gefüllt und einzelne Reaktoren wurden nach bestimmten Zeiten geöffnet und anschließend verworfen, bis die letzten Reaktoren am dreißigsten Tag geöffnet wurden. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass H2O-P und NaHCO3-P während der Vergärungszeit um bis zu 40,1 % abnahmen. Gleichzeitig stieg NaOH-P an. Insgesamt ließ sich feststellen, dass die anaerobe Vergärung zu einer Mineralisierung von P führte. Die Mineralisierung war in den ersten Tagen nach der Vermischung des Substrats mit dem Inokulum besonders ausgeprägt, was darauf schließen lässt, dass die Ionen im Inokulum eine wichtige Rolle bei dieser Mineralisierung spielten. Daraus resultiert, dass AD die unmittelbare Pflanzenverfügbarkeit verringert, aber die Langzeitdüngewirkung erhöht. Bei den Batch-Versuchen wurde festgestellt, dass für eine definierte Messwellenlänge für Gärreste das Absorptionsspektrum von Gärrestextrakten analysiert und eine Trocknungstemperatur für die Probenbehandlung bestimmt werden muss. Zur Beurteilung dieser beiden Aspekte wurden Proben bei 50C und 105°C getrocknet und gefriergetrocknet. Anschließend wurden diese Proben und ungetrocknete Gärreste durch Hedley-Fraktionierung extrahiert. Die Indikatorlösung wurde den Extrakten zugesetzt und die Spektren zwischen 600 nm und 1100 nm gemessen. Die Spektrallinien zeigten zwei Maxima (709 nm und 889 nm). Die niedrigere Wellenlänge war bei geringen Konzentrationen stabiler, weshalb diese die bessere Wellenlänge zur Analyse war. Die Analyse der Hedley-Extrakte zeigte, dass die Trocknung den Anteil an H2O-P und NaHCO3-P um bis zu 70 % erhöht. Hinzu kommt, dass die Proben mit dem vorherigen Lösungsmittel gespült wurden, um die Genauigkeit zu erhöhen. Insgesamt erzielte die angepasste Methode eine höhere Genauigkeit für H2O-P, NaHCO3-P als die frühere Methode. Die angepasste Fraktionierung wurde für die Analyse von Proben bei Versuchen in kontinuierlich gerührten Tankreaktoren verwendet. Hühnerkot und Rindergülle wurden jeweils mit Stroh co-fermentiert und die Parameter Faulraumbelastung und Temperatur wurden variiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass die Faulraumbelastung eine negative Korrelation mit H2O-P hatte, das um bis zu 50,49 % abnahm. Gleichzeitig stieg der HCl-P-Gehalt in Gärresten aus Hühnerkot signifikant an und zeigte eine positive Korrelation mit der Faulraumbelastung. Es wurde nachgewiesen, dass die Temperatur einen geringen Einfluss auf die P-Umwandlung hat, wobei die P-Mineralisierung unter thermophilen Bedingungen etwas höher war. Insbesondere die hohe Kalziumkonzentration in Hühnerkot dominierte den P-Umsatz während der Vergärung, was sich auch in der positiven Korrelation der Faulraumbelastung mit HCl-P, sowie einem hohen Pearson-Korrelationskoeffizienten von über 0,85 für Kalzium und Phosphat in Hühnerkot zeigte. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit haben gezeigt, dass P seine chemische Zusammensetzung während der anaeroben Vergärung erheblich verändert. Die Parameter des Vergärungsprozesses haben einen entscheidenden Einfluss auf die endgültige Zusammensetzung, wobei die Faulraumbelastung und die Substratzusammensetzung die wichtigsten Faktoren waren. Die Ergebnisse zeigten außerdem, dass Gasproduktion und hohe P-Löslichkeit in Konflikt stehen, da für eine erhöhte H2O-P Konzentration die Faulraumbelastung reduziert werden muss. Zukünftige Arbeiten sollten sich speziell auf die Kombination dieser anaeroben Vergärung und Nachbehandlungen für eine kosteneffiziente Rückgewinnung konzentrieren. Dies kann eine Schlüsselrolle für die künftige Rentabilität von Biogasprojekten spielen

Maltreatment-associated neurodevelopmental disorders: a co-twin control analysis

Background: Childhood maltreatment (CM) is strongly associated with psychiatric disorders in childhood and adulthood. Previous findings suggest that the association between CM and psychiatric disorders is partly causal and partly due to familial confounding, but few studies have investigated the mechanisms behind the association between CM and neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Our objective was to determine whether maltreated children have an elevated number of NDDs and whether CM is a risk factor for an increased NDD ‘load’ and increased NDD symptoms when controlling for familial effects. Methods: We used a cross-sectional sample from a population-representative Swedish twin study, comprising 8,192 nine-year-old twins born in Sweden between 1997 and 2005. CM was defined as parent-reported exposure to emotional abuse/neglect, physical neglect, physical abuse, and/or sexual abuse. Four NDDs were measured with the Autism–Tics, AD/HD, and other comorbidities inventory. Results: Maltreated children had a greater mean number of NDDs than nonmaltreated children. In a co-twin control design, CM-discordant monozygotic twins did not differ significantly for their number of NDDs, suggesting that CM is not associated with an increased load of NDDs when genetic and shared environmental factors are taken into account. However, CM was associated with a small increase in symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder in CM-discordant MZ twins, although most of the covariance of CM with NDD symptoms was explained by common genetic effects. Conclusions: Maltreated children are at higher risk of having multiple NDDs. Our findings are, however, not consistent with the notion that CM causes the increased NDD load in maltreated children. Maltreated children should receive a full neurodevelopmental assessment, and clinicians should be aware that children with multiple NDDs are at higher risk of maltreatment

Finite element method for strongly-coupled systems of fluid-structure interaction with application to granular flow in silos

A monolithic approach to fluid-structure interactions based on the space-time finite element method (STFEM) is presented. The method is applied to the investigation of stress states in silos filled with granular material during discharge. The thin-walled siloshell is modeled in a continuum approach as elastic solid material, whereas the flowing granular material is described by an enhanced viscoplastic non-Newtonian fluid model. The weak forms of the governing equations are discretized by STFEM for both solid and fluid domain. To adapt the matching mesh nodes of the fluid domain to the structural deformations, a mesh-moving scheme using a neo-Hookean pseudo-solid is applied. The finite element approximation of non-smooth solution characteristics is enhanced by the extended finite element method (XFEM). The proposed methodology is applied to the 4D (space-time) investigation of deformation-dependent loading conditions during silo discharge

Coupled analysis of transport processes and mechanical behaviour of concrete at high temperatures

A model for the numerical analysis of hygro-thermal and mechanical behaviour of concrete at high temperatures including transport, reaction and deformation processes is presented. For the description of transport and material behaviour the model comprises the balance equations for mass and enthalpy and the constitutive equations for concrete at high temperatures. The degradation of the cement minerals C-S-H and portlandite is described by two chemical reactions. The consideration of thermo-chemical damage in the classical non-local damage theory is discussed. Finally, the finite element formulation for solving the coupled balance equations regarding the primary variables displacement, temperature and relative humidity is presented and numerical results of a 3-D frame corner are discussed