Regional Flow Simulation in Fractured Aquifers Using Stress-Dependent Parameters

A model function relating effective stress to fracture permeability is developed from Hooke's law, implemented in the tensorial form of Darcy's law, and used to evaluate discharge rates and pressure distributions at regional scales. The model takes into account elastic and statistical fracture parameters, and is able to simulate real stress-dependent permeabilities from laboratory to field studies. This modeling approach gains in phenomenology in comparison to the classical ones because the permeability tensors may vary in both strength and principal directions according to effective stresses. Moreover this method allows evaluation of the fracture porosity changes, which are then translated into consolidation of the medium.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Ground Water 201

Thermal design and characterization of a modular integrated liquid cooled 1200 V-35 A SiC MOSFET bi-directional switch

The aim of this work is the thermal design of a modular direct liquid cooled package for 1200 V–35 A SiC power MOSFETs, in order to take full advantage of the high power density and high frequency performance of these devices, in the development of a modular integrated solution for power converters. An accurate electro-thermal fluid dynamic model is set up and validated by thermal characterization on a prototype; numerical models have been used to study the internal temperature distribution and to propose further optimization

Investigation of surface integrity in laser-assisted machining of nickel based superalloy

While laser-assisted machining can significantly improve the machinability of nickel-based superalloy, the mechanism of surface integrity evolution and its influence on the material functional performance is still not clear. The present study gives a comprehensive investigation on the surface integrity of laser-assisted milling (LAMill) process with an in-depth study of the mechanism of chip formation, microstructural and mechanical alternations, supported by key outcomes from the two constitutive processes, conventional milling (CMill) and single laser scanning (LS). Although the high thermal affected layer in LAMill process has been removed through the cutting chips, a significant bending effect has been found in both the LAMill and LS workpiece. More interestingly, a combined impact of the residual stress from LS and CMill has been found on LAMill workpiece while a lattice evolution has been revealed regarding both the thermal and mechanical influence. Specifically, inadequate fatigue performance on LAMill and LS workpiece has been found due to the high thermal effect in the superficial layer regarding the residual tensile stress distribution and microstructure variation. While LAMill is generally considered as a promising machining method with improved machinability of difficult-to-cut materials, this research shows a poor workpiece functional performance (fatigue) and justifies its application prospect

Wave attenuation and dissipation mechanisms in viscoelastic phononic crystals

This work investigates wave attenuation and dissipation mechanisms in viscoelastic phononic crystals (VPCs) having different inclusion types in a long-wavelength regime. After investigating the intrinsic damping properties of VPCs for different inclusion sizes and materials, we carried out wave simulations revealing the energy dissipation by a finite VPC structure inserted inside an elastic medium. The simulations, supported by physical reasoning, showed that air-and metal-embedded VPCs can indeed dissipate more wave energy than pure viscoelastic media in low and high frequency ranges, respectively. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4795285clos

Inverted bi-prism phononic crystals for one-sided elastic wave transmission applications

This work presents the realization of one-sided wave transmission by using a specially engineered phononic crystal structure. It is an inverted bi-prism phononic crystal engineered for a horizontally incident elastic wave at a specific frequency. The incident wave along one direction is shown to be totally reflected by the bi-prism while the incident wave along the opposite direction transmitted through it with refraction, also evident from experiments. An application of the proposed bi-prism may be found in thin elastic strips. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4721485clos

A new predictor-corrector approach for the numerical integration of coupled electromechanical equations

In this paper, a new approach for the numerical solution of coupled electromechanical problems is presented. The structure of the considered problem consists of the low-frequency integral formulation of the Maxwell equations coupled with Newton-Euler rigid-body dynamic equations. Two different integration schemes based on the predictor-corrector approach are presented and discussed. In the first method, the electrical equation is integrated with an implicit single-step time marching algorithm, while the mechanical dynamics is studied by a predictor-corrector scheme. The predictor uses the forward Euler method, while the corrector is based on the trapezoidal rule. The second method is based on the use of two interleaved predictor-corrector schemes: one for the electrical equations and the other for the mechanical ones. Both the presented methods have been validated by comparison with experimental data (when available) and with results obtained by other numerical formulations; in problems characterized by low speeds, both schemes produce accurate results, with similar computation times. When high speeds are involved, the first scheme needs shorter time steps (i.e., longer computation times) in order to achieve the same accuracy of the second one. A brief discussion on extending the algorithm for simulating deformable bodies is also presented. An example of application to a two-degree-of-freedom levitating device based on permanent magnets is finally reported

Comparison and Implementation of a Rigid and a Flexible Multibody Planetary Gearbox Model

We propose algorithms for developing (1) a rigid (constrained) and (2) a flexible planetary gearbox model. The two methods are compared against each other and advantages/disadvantages of each method are discussed. The rigid model (1) has gear tooth reaction forces expressed by Lagrange multipliers. The flexible approach (2) is being compared with the gear tooth forces from the rigid approach, first without damping and second the influence of damping is examined. Variable stiffness as a function of base circle arc length is implemented in the flexible approach such that it handles the realistic switch between one and two gear teeth in mesh. The final results are from modelling the planetary gearbox in a 500 kW wind turbine which we also described in Jørgensen et.al (2013)