A new iterative technique of the finite element method for the analysis of the steady state incompressible viscous flow based on the transformation of variables

In this paper the convergence acceleration for solving steady-state incompressible flows, by using iterative solvers, is explored. The variable transformation: u = u – , p = –r, where u and are the rotational velocity and the velocity potential, respectively, is applied to the finite element discretized equations so as to get diagonal-dominant equations. The effectivity of the present techniques is demonstrated on the 2D lid-driven flow and the 3D flow in a disk-cylinder system.     

Changes in organic constituents in river water during incubation

A water sample collected from Tama River in the Tokyo area was incubated 29 days in the dark conditions at 25 ± 3°C to determine the extent and rate of the degradation of organic constituents and changes in their composition. The majority (>95%) of n-alkanes, fatty acids and sterols were degraded, although total organic carbon (TOC) and extractable organic carbon with ethyl acetate (EOC) remained in considerable amounts (>23%). The degradation of organic constituents occurred apparently in two or three steps. The rate constants for the degradation of TOC, EOC, hydrocarbons, fatty acids and sterols for the first step were 0.090, 0.18, 0.082, 1.4 and 0.23 day⁻¹, respectively. The relative abundances of total fatty acids and sterols as carbon in TOC (EOC) decreased remarkably during incubation (0–11 days) from 7.18 to 0.28% and 0.46 to 0.07%, respectively (31.2-2.2% and 2.0-0.6%, respectively), whereas those of hydrocarbons were not significantly changed.     

Probabilistic fracture mechanics of nuclear structural components: consideration of transition from embedded crack to surface crack

This paper describes a probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) analysis of aged nuclear reactor pressure vessel (RPV) material. New interpolation formulas of three-dimensional stress intensity factors are presented for both embedded elliptical surface cracks and semi-elliptical surface cracks. To investigate effects of transition from embedded crack to surface crack in PFM analyses, one of the PFM round-robin problems set by JSME-RC111 committee (i.e. aged RPV under normal and upset operating conditions) is solved, employing the interpolation formulas.     

Probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis of nuclear structural components: a review of recent Japanese activities

This paper describes a review of recent Japanese activities on probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) analyses. Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) has sponsored research committees on PFM organized by Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) and Japan Welding Engineering Society (JWES) for more than 10 years. The purpose of the continuous activity is to establish standard procedures for evaluating failure probabilities of Japanese nuclear structural components such as PV&P and steam generator tube, combining the state-of-the-art knowledge on structural integrity of nuclear structural components and modern computer technology such as parallel processing. This paper shows two topics of the newest results of JWES committee, PFM analysis of aged reactor pressure vessel considering embedded cracks and PFM analysis of piping considering seismic loading, and one topic by JAERI itself, development of PTS analysis code for transient loading (PASCAL).     

Accurate fluid-structure interaction computations using elements without mid-side nodes

The paper proposes a new analysis method for fluid-structure problems, which has nodal consistency at the fluid-structure interface and its calculation efficiency and accuracy are high. The incompressible viscous fluid analysis method using the P1-P1 element based on SUPG/PSPG developed by Tezduyar et al. is used for fluid analysis, while the high-accuracy analysis method based on EFMM developed by the authors is adopted for structure analysis. As the common feature of these methods, it is possible to analyze a fluid or a structure rather accurately by using the first-order triangular or tetrahedral elements. In addition, variables are exchanged exactly at the common nodes on the fluid-structure boundary without deteriorating accuracy and calculation efficiency due to the interpolation of variables between nodes. The present method is applied to a fluid-structure interaction problem by simulating the deformation of a red blood cell.     

Ultra‐narrow border display with a cover glass using liquid crystal displays with a polyimide substrate

Plastic liquid crystal displays (LCDs) termed sheet LCDs with transparent polyimide (PI) substrates were constructed. There is a lot of potential to expand the use of these LCDs in LCD applications. Herein, we investigated a structure for sheet LCDs such as high‐density main post spacers (PSs) and PI substrates with the aid of a barrier layer to control the residual stress and protect the liquid crystal from moisture. Drawing on this, we propose an ultra‐narrow border LCD that makes of the developed sheet LCDs. The most significant improvement is that the four borders of the LCD can be folded to wrap the backlight unit. This LCD was based on various new techniques, including the use of plastic substrates, processing of polarizer films, control of the neutral surface of a bending component based on the sealant width, and the use of a cover glass with a lens effect. We believe that these novel LCDs will be useful in numerous new applications.     

Seismic loads for crack stability assessment, in a review of leak-before-break (LBB) applicability

This study was performed to define the seismic loading conditions for use in the crack stability assessment of a BWR for the applicability of the leak-before-break (LBB) criterion. The LBB has been applied to the design of Class 1 piping in Japanese light-water reactors. Crack penetrated condition with detectable leak in the LBB applicability review is classified into the Level C service condition. Here an S₁-earthquake (maximum design earthquake) is currently assumed, rather than an S₂-earthquake (extreme design earthquake). In order to justify this assumption, the frequency of an S₁-earthquake occurring during coolant leakage due to crack propagation was determined. The frequency of coolant leakage from Class 1 piping must be less than that of the Level C service condition (2.5 × 10⁻² to 1 × 10⁻⁴ per year) in order to assume that an S₁-earthquake is appropriate. Accordingly, the frequency of coolant leakage from Class 1 piping was calculated using a probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM). The results of this analysis indicate that the frequency of coolant leakage from Class 1 piping is less than the expected occurrence of an S₁-earthquake. As the results, it is concluded that the assumption of the seismic loading employed in an LBB applicability review should be appropriate.     

Finite element analysis of stress intensity factors for plane extension and plate bending problems

This paper deals with the finite element calculation of the stress intensity faactors for plane extension and plate bending problems. On the basis of the plate theory including the effect of transverse shear deformation, the influences of plate thickness, crack length and plate width on the stress intensity faotors are investigated. The numeriacal analyses are carried out using the superposition method of analytical and finite element solutions. It is found that the present stress intensity factors calculated for cracked plates under plane extension as well as bending compare favorably with the analytical ones.     

A CAE system for micromachines: Its application to electrostatic micro wobble actuator

This paper describes a new computer-aided engineering (CAE) system for micromachines 10⁻⁶−10⁻³ m in size. An automatic finite-element (FE) mesh-generation technique, which is based on the fuzzy knowledge processing and computational geometry techniques, is incorporated into the system, together with a commercial FE analysis code, MARC, and a commercial solid modeler, DESIGNBASE. The system allows a geometry model of interest to be automatically converted to different FE models, depending on the physical phenomena of the micromachines to be analyzed, i.e., electrostatic analysis, stress analysis, modal analysis, and so on. The FE models are then automatically analyzed using the FE analysis code. Out of the whole process of analysis, the definition of a geometry model, the designation of local node patterns and the assignment of material properties and boundary conditions to the geometry model are the only interactive processes to be done by the user. The interactive operations can be processed in a few minutes. The other processes, which are time consuming and labour intensive in conventional CAE systems, are fully automatically performed in a popular engineering workstation environment. With the aid of multilayer neural networks, the present system also allows us to obtain automatically a design window in which a number of satisfactory design solutions exist in a multi-dimensional design parameter space, considering coupled multiple phenomena such as static and dynamic deformation, thermal conduction, electrostatics, and so on. This CAE system is successfully applied to evaluate an electrostatic micro wobble actuator. As a typical CAE evaluation, we identify the quantitative conditions for operating the micro wobble actuator, considering both structural and electrostatic phenomena.     

Elastic-plastic finite element analysis using superposition

This paper concerns the method of calculation and solution using the superposition technique of analytic and finite element solutions, which is applied to elastic-plastic plane problems. The incremental form of the principle of virtual work is employed to derive the equations, from which the nodal displacements of the finite elements together with the generalized displacements of the analytic solution are calculated simultaneously. Several example problems are solved for elastic-plastic material with the use of the von Mises yield criteria and the associated flow rule. It is concluded that the present method is so effective as to give enough accuracy in strain concentration problems with small numbers of elements.