37 research outputs found
Multiscale mass-spring models of carbon nanotube foams
This article is concerned with the mechanical properties of dense, vertically aligned CNT foams subject to one-dimensional compressive loading. We develop a discrete model directly inspired by the micromechanical response reported experimentally for CNT foams, where infinitesimal portions of the tubes are represented by collections of uniform bi-stable springs. Under cyclic loading, the given model predicts an initial elastic deformation, a non-homogeneous buckling regime, and a densification response, accompanied by a hysteretic unloading path. We compute the dynamic dissipation of such a model through an analytic approach. The continuum limit of the microscopic spring chain defines a mesoscopic dissipative element (micro-meso transition) which represents a finite portion of the foam thickness. An upper-scale model formed by a chain of non-uniform mesoscopic springs is employed to describe the entire CNT foam. A numerical approximation illustrates the main features of the proposed multiscale approach. Available experimental results on the compressive response of CNT foams are fitted with excellent agreement
Multiscale Mass-Spring Models of Carbon Nanotube Arrays Accounting for Mullins-like Behavior and Permanent Deformation
Based on a one-dimensional discrete system of bistable springs, a mechanical model is introduced to describe plasticity and damage in carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays. The energetics of the mechanical system are investigated analytically, the stress-strain law is derived, and the mechanical dissipation is computed, both for the discrete case as well as for the continuum limit. An information-passing approach is developed that permits the investigation of macroscopic portions of the material. As an application, the simulation of a cyclic compression experiment on real CNT foam is performed, considering both the material response during the primary loading path from the virgin state and the damaged response after preconditioning
Continuum limits of bistable spring models of carbon nanotube arrays accounting for material damage
Using chains of bistable springs, a model is derived to investigate the
plastic behavior of carbon nanotube arrays with damage. We study the
preconditioning effect due to the loading history by computing analytically the
stress-strain pattern corresponding to a fatigue-type damage of the structure.
We identify the convergence of the discrete response to the limiting case of
infinitely many springs, both analytically in the framework of
Gamma-convergence, as well as numerically.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur
On a non-isothermal model for nematic liquid crystals
A model describing the evolution of a liquid crystal substance in the nematic
phase is investigated in terms of three basic state variables: the {\it
absolute temperature} \teta, the {\it velocity field} \ub, and the {\it
director field} \bd, representing preferred orientation of molecules in a
neighborhood of any point of a reference domain. The time evolution of the
velocity field is governed by the incompressible Navier-Stokes system, with a
non-isotropic stress tensor depending on the gradients of the velocity and of
the director field \bd, where the transport (viscosity) coefficients vary
with temperature. The dynamics of \bd is described by means of a parabolic
equation of Ginzburg-Landau type, with a suitable penalization term to relax
the constraint |\bd | = 1. The system is supplemented by a heat equation,
where the heat flux is given by a variant of Fourier's law, depending also on
the director field \bd. The proposed model is shown compatible with
\emph{First and Second laws} of thermodynamics, and the existence of
global-in-time weak solutions for the resulting PDE system is established,
without any essential restriction on the size of the data
Lagrangian and Hamiltonian two-scale reduction
Studying high-dimensional Hamiltonian systems with microstructure, it is an
important and challenging problem to identify reduced macroscopic models that
describe some effective dynamics on large spatial and temporal scales. This
paper concerns the question how reasonable macroscopic Lagrangian and
Hamiltonian structures can by derived from the microscopic system.
In the first part we develop a general approach to this problem by
considering non-canonical Hamiltonian structures on the tangent bundle. This
approach can be applied to all Hamiltonian lattices (or Hamiltonian PDEs) and
involves three building blocks: (i) the embedding of the microscopic system,
(ii) an invertible two-scale transformation that encodes the underlying scaling
of space and time, (iii) an elementary model reduction that is based on a
Principle of Consistent Expansions.
In the second part we exemplify the reduction approach and derive various
reduced PDE models for the atomic chain. The reduced equations are either
related to long wave-length motion or describe the macroscopic modulation of an
oscillatory microstructure.Comment: 40 page