Quasi-static and dynamic crushing behaviors of aluminum and steel tubes with a cutout

Tubular members are commonly used as an energy absorber in engineering structures and many such members have a cutout. In this study, the crushing behaviors of tubes with a cutout are characterized and the effects of cutout on the energy absorption capabilities of these tubes are quantified. Systematic parametric studies were carried out to study the effect of material properties, including yield and ultimate strength of material, strain rate effect, location of cutout, tube length and impact speed on the crushing behaviors and energy absorption capacity of aluminum and steel tubes. First, a numerical model was constructed with a commercial explicit finite element code. It will be first proven that the numerical simulation can produce sufficiently accurate results in an economic manner. Subsequently, the crushing behavior of aluminum and steel tubes with a cutout was experimentally characterized and their energy absorption capacity was evaluated in terms of mean crushing force, peak crushing force and specific energy absorption (SEA). Tubes of various lengths with a cutout located at different locations, subject to both quasi-static and dynamic impact loadings were considered. For steel tubes, the numerical simulation investigated the influence of the strain rate effect and variation in strain hardening ratio of the material. Empirical equations describing the mean and peak crushing forces of aluminum and steel tubes with a cutout were developed using linear and nonlinear regression methods applied to the results obtained from the numerical and experimental studies.     

井下伴热电缆导体集肤效应的有限元法分析

运用有限元法, 对交频井下伴热电缆导体内部的集肤效应现象进行了数值模拟和分析,比较直观地得出交频电缆中电流密度的分布特性, 以及交流电的不同频率对导体集肤深度的影响。在集肤效应作用下, 电缆导体内部的有效过流面积减小, 交流阻抗显著加大, 其发热量也很大,井下电缆伴热加热技术就是利用这一原理来加热原油的。通过数值模拟, 可以定量地说明电参数对加热效果的影响, 为稠油井井下电缆伴热技术中优化加热参数提供指导。     

Iterative finite element model of nonlinear viscoplastic analyses for blended granular porous media

The iterative finite element model, in which an element is used to represent a single particle, is generated to analyze the global behavior of multiple-material aggregates of materially nonlinear viscoplastic particles. The generalized Maxwell model is used to define four types of specific nonlinear viscoplastic materials, which are the elasto visco-plastic matter with linear viscosity, the plasto visco-plastic material with linear viscosity, the elasto visco-plastic media with nonlinear viscosity, and the plasto visco-plastic media with nonlinear viscosity. The theory and relevant penalty iterative algorithm are developed to analyze the four representative mixed granular systems consisting of materially nonlinear viscous particles. To verify precision of stress calculation, solutions of an axis-symmetric radial flow problem are compared with results of the literature and they are in a great agreement. The results present here provide significant insight into the fundamental behavior of granular media under compaction conditions, including prediction of the overall aggregates stress-strain response.     

Solving thermal and phase change problems with the eXtended finite element method

 The application of the eXtended finite element method (X-FEM) to thermal problems with moving heat sources and phase boundaries is presented. Of particular interest is the ability of the method to capture the highly localized, transient solution in the vicinity of a heat source or material interface. This is effected through the use of a time-dependent basis formed from the union of traditional shape functions with a set of evolving enrichment functions. The enrichment is constructed through the partition of unity framework, so that the system of equations remains sparse and the resulting approximation is conforming. In this manner, local solutions and arbitrary discontinuities that cannot be represented by the standard shape functions are captured with the enrichment functions. A standard time-projection algorithm is employed to account for the time-dependence of the enrichment, and an iterative strategy is adopted to satisfy local interface conditions. The separation of the approximation into classical shape functions that remain fixed in time and the evolving enrichment leads to a very efficient solution strategy. The robustness and utility of the method is demonstrated with several benchmark problems involving moving heat sources and phase transformations. Received 20 May 2001 / Accepted 19 December 2001     

Material state remapping in computational solid mechanics

A computational procedure for remapping material state information from one finite element mesh to another is described. The procedure is useful in connection with evolving meshes for inelastic problems, as for example occur in the context of fracture simulation and adaptive mesh refinement. The proposed method is based on weak enforcement of equality between corresponding fields on the two meshes, where piecewise‐constant fields on both meshes are generalized from the quadrature‐point values. The essential algorithmic problem is that of calculating the volume partition of an arbitrary convex region with respect to a covering set of disjoint convex regions. Instead of geometrically resolving the associated intersections, the problem is herein approximated by a constrained optimization problem, which may be readily and efficiently solved computationally. This formulation is a main contribution of the paper. Computational examples are given that illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed procedure. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

铝电解槽磁流体稳定性有限元分析

本文采用有限元法求解分层磁流体小扰动方程系统特征值，研究铝电解槽稳定性。研究结果表明，在没有电磁力时，铝液表面波动（内波）是稳定的。存在电磁力时，它会激发铝液表面波动的某些低频长波分量不稳定性，高频短波不受影响。被激发的不稳定波动频率和扰动增长率与电流密度，磁感应强度垂直分量，铝电解槽长宽比，电解质和铝液的密度差，厚度等因素密切相关。减少电流密度，磁感应强度，增加电极距离和铝液厚度可以提高铝电解槽的稳定性。这对铝电解槽优化设计和在线控制有重要意义。     

Lower bound limit analysis using non‐linear programming

This paper describes a new formulation, based on linear finite elements and non‐linear programming, for computing rigorous lower bounds in 1, 2 and 3 dimensions. The resulting optimization problem is typically very large and highly sparse and is solved using a fast quasi‐Newton method whose iteration count is largely independent of the mesh refinement. For two‐dimensional applications, the new formulation is shown to be vastly superior to an equivalent formulation that is based on a linearized yield surface and linear programming. Although it has been developed primarily for geotechnical applications, the method can be used for a wide range of plasticity problems including those with inhomogeneous materials, complex loading, and complicated geometry. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

海洋石油平台水下夹桩器本体结构分析

水下夹桩器是一种广泛应用于海洋石油平台建设的液压夹具。水下夹桩器本体焊接在导管架上，支撑夹桩器液压缸。在水下夹桩器本体设计中，采用有限元法完成了对本体强度和刚度的结构分析；建立了有限元分析模型，用ANSYS软件进行结构分析，得到了分析结果，并将该结果与理论计算结果进行了比较，验证了有限元分析技术的有效性。设计结果满足工程要求，为改进和优化结构提供了理论依据，节省了分析计算时间。     

单桩腿有限元分析

为保证桩腿在冬季冰区海域的安全使用,对桩腿结构进行冰载荷作用下的强度分析。应用ANSYS软件建立桩腿、地基、冰相互作用的仿真计算模型,实现桩腿的力学分析。对桩腿进行了强度校核,计算出冰载荷作用下桩腿的变形及其应力状态。计算结果表明,桩腿在此冰载荷作用下强度满足安全要求。