• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.49 no.4
• /
• pp.393-405
• /
• 2023

In this paper, the energy absorption capability of a novel cruciform composite lattice structure was evaluated through the simulation of compression tests. For this purpose, several test samples of Polylactic acid cellular reinforced with continuous glass fibers were prepared for compression testing using the additive manufacturing method of material extrusion. Using a conventional path design for material extrusion, multiple debonding is probable to be occurred at the joint regions of adjacent cells. Therefore, an innovative printing path design was proposed for the cruciform lattice structure. Afterwards, quasistatic compression tests were performed to evaluate the energy absorption behaviour of this structure. A finite element model based on local material property degradation was then developed to verify the experimental test and extend the virtual test method. Accordingly, different combinations of unit cells' dimensions using the design of the experiment were numerically proposed to obtain the optimal configuration in terms of the total absorbed energy. Having brilliant energy absorption properties, the studied cruciform lattice with its optimized unit cell dimensions can be used as an energy absorber in crashworthiness applications. Finally, a cellular structure will be suitable with optimal behavior in crush load efficiency and high energy absorption.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
• /
• v.32 no.6
• /
• pp.321-328
• /
• 2023

To ensure driver safety, high-strength steel pipes are utilized in the chassis and internal structures design of automobiles. ERW(electric resistance welding) pipes, fabricated through welding at joints using electrical resistance, form a Heat-Affected Zone (HAZ) during the welding process. Due to characteristics such as increased hardness and reduced ductility compared to the base material, HAZ poses challenges in finite element analysis (FEA) for pipe shapes. In this study, for FEA considering HAZ properties, mechanical properties were measured through uniaxial tensile testing and digital image correlation (DIC) techniques after specimen fabrication. These measurements were validated using reverse engineering methods. Furthermore, hardness measurements and gaussian functions were employed to ascertain the hardness distribution within the HAZ, serving as a basis for subdividing the HAZ and modeling the pipe shape. To validate the effectiveness of the HAZ modeling approach, models were interpreted incorporating only base material properties and models incorporating average-calculated HAZ properties. Comparative analysis was performed, revealing that the model subdividing the HAZ based on hardness measurements closely approximated experimental values. This validation offered a methodology for HAZ modeling in FEA.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.49 no.5
• /
• pp.587-602
• /
• 2023

This article presents the numerical modelling of transient heat transfer in highly heterogeneous composite materials where the thermal conductivity, specific heat and density are assumed to be directional-dependent. This article uses a coupled finite element-finite difference scheme to perform the transient heat transfer analysis of unidirectional (1D) and multidirectional (2D/3D) functionally graded composite panels. Here, 1D/2D/3D functionally graded structures are subjected to nonuniform heat source and inhomogeneous boundary conditions. Here, the multidirectional functionally graded materials are modelled by varying material properties in individual or in-combination of spatial directions. Here, fully spatial-dependent material properties are evaluated using Voigt's micromechanics scheme via multivariable power-law functions. The weak form is obtained through the Galerkin method and solved further via the element-space and time-step discretisation through the 2D-isoparametric finite element and the implicit backward finite difference schemes, respectively. The present model is verified by comparing it with the previously reported results and the commercially available finite element tool. The numerous illustrations confirm the significance of boundary conditions and material heterogeneity on the transient temperature responses of 1D/2D/3D functionally graded panels.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.49 no.5
• /
• pp.547-570
• /
• 2023

In the present work, a comparative study has been carried out between power, exponential, and sigmoidal sandwich FGM plates for free vibration conditions under hygro-thermal conditions. Rules of mixture is used to determine effective material properties across the thickness for power-law and sigmoid sandwich FGM plates. Exponential law is used to plot effective material properties for exponentially graded sandwich FGM plates. Temperature and moisture dependent material properties were used during the analysis. Free vibration analysis is carried out using recently proposed finite element based HOZT. Present formulation satisfies interlayer transverse stress continuity conditions at interfaces and transverse shear stress-free conditions at the plate's top and bottom surfaces. The present model is free from any penalty or post-processing requirements. Several new results are reported in the present work, especially for unsymmetric sandwich FGM plates and exponential and sigmoidal sandwich FGM plates.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.50 no.1
• /
• pp.77-87
• /
• 2024

In this study, the two-dimensional crack problem was investigated by using the finite element method (FEM)-based ANSYS package program and the artificial neural network (ANN)-based multilayer perceptron (MLP) method. For this purpose, a half-infinite functionally graded (FG) layer with a crack pressed through two rigid blocks was analyzed using FEM and ANN. Mass forces and friction were neglected in the solution. To control the validity of the crack problem model exercised, the acquired results were compared with a study in the literature. In addition, FEM and ANN results were checked using Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R²), and a well agreement was found. Numerical solutions were made considering different geometric parameters and material properties. The stress intensity factor (SIF) was examined for these values, and the results were presented. Consequently, it is concluded that the considered non-dimensional quantities have a noteworthy influence on the SIF. Also FEM and ANN can be logical alternative methods to time-consuming analytical solutions if used correctly.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.50 no.4
• /
• pp.429-441
• /
• 2024

This paper studies the free vibration behavior of trapezoidal shaped coupled double-layered graphene sheets (DLGS) system using first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and incorporating nonlocal elasticity theory. Two nanoplates are assumed to be bonded by an interlayer van der walls force and surrounded by an external kelvin-voight viscoelastic medium. The governing equations together with related boundary condition are discretized using a mapping-differential quadrature method (DQM) in the spatial domain. Then the natural frequency of the system is obtained by solving the eigen value matrix equation. The validity of the current study is evaluated by comparing its numerical results with those available in the literature and then a parametric study is thoroughly performed, concentrating on the series effects of angles and aspect ratio of GS, viscoelastic medium, and nonlocal parameter. The model is used to study the vibration of DLGS for two typical deformation modes, the in-phase and out-of-phase vibrations, which are investigated. Numerical results indicate that due to Increasing the damping parameter of the viscoelastic medium has reduced the frequency of both modes and this medium has been able to overdamped the oscillations and by increasing stiffness parameters both in-phase and out-of-phase vibration frequencies increased.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.50 no.4
• /
• pp.443-458
• /
• 2024

The construction industry, one of the biggest producers of greenhouse emissions, is under a lot of pressure as a result of growing worries about how climate change may affect local communities. Geopolymer concrete (GPC) has emerged as a feasible choice for construction materials as a result of the environmental issues connected to the manufacture of cement. The findings of this study contribute to the development of machine learning methods for estimating the properties of eco-friendly concrete, which might be used in lieu of traditional concrete to reduce CO₂ emissions in the building industry. In the present work, the compressive strength (f_c) of GPC is calculated using random forests regression (RFR) methodology where natural zeolite (NZ) and silica fume (SF) replace ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS). From the literature, a thorough set of experimental experiments on GPC samples were compiled, totaling 254 data rows. The considered RFR integrated with artificial hummingbird optimization (AHA), black widow optimization algorithm (BWOA), and chimp optimization algorithm (ChOA), abbreviated as ARFR, BRFR, and CRFR. The outcomes obtained for RFR models demonstrated satisfactory performance across all evaluation metrics in the prediction procedure. For R² metric, the CRFR model gained 0.9988 and 0.9981 in the train and test data set higher than those for BRFR (0.9982 and 0.9969), followed by ARFR (0.9971 and 0.9956). Some other error and distribution metrics depicted a roughly 50% improvement for CRFR respect to ARFR.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.11
• /
• pp.4266-4273
• /
• 2023

In a severe reactor accident, a crust will form on the surface of the molten material during the core melting process. The crust will have a contact melting with the internal components of the reactor. In this paper, the contact melting process of the molten material on the austenitic stainless steel plate bundles is studied. The contact melting model of parabolic molten material on the plate bundles is proposed, and the rule and main effect factors of the contact melting are analyzed. The results show that the melting velocity is proportional to the slope of the paraboloid, the heat flux and the distance between two plates D. The influence of melt gravity and the plate width on melting velocity is negligible. The thickness of the molten liquid film is proportional to the heat flux and plate width, and it is inversely proportional to the gravity. With the increase of D, the liquid film thickness decreases at first and then increases gradually. The liquid film thickness has a minimum against D. When the width of the plate is small, the width of the plate is the main factor affecting the thickness of the liquid film. The parameters are coupled with each other. In a severe reactor accident, the wider internal components of reactor, which can increase the thickness of the melting liquid film and reduce the net input heat flux from the molten material to the components, are the effective measures to delay the melting process.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.11
• /
• pp.4120-4124
• /
• 2023

High-level radioactive waste produced by nuclear power plants are disposed subterraneously utilizing an engineered barrier system (EBS). A gap inevitably exists between the disposal canisters and buffer materials, which may have a negative effect on the thermal transfer and water-blocking efficiency of the system. As few previous experimental works have quantified this effect, this study aimed to create an experimental model for investigating differences in the temperature changes of bentonite buffer in the presence and absence of air gaps between it and a surrounding stainless steel cell. Three test scenarios comprised an empty cell and cells partially or completely filled with bentonite. The temperature was measured inside the buffers and on the inner surface of their surrounding cells, which were artificially heated. The time required for the entire system to reach 100℃ was approximately 40% faster with no gap between the inner cell surface and the bentonite. This suggests that rock-buffer spaces should be filled in practice to ensure the rapid dissipation of heat from the buffer materials to their surroundings. However, it can be advantageous to retain buffer-canister gaps to lower the peak buffer temperature.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.12
• /
• pp.4647-4658
• /
• 2023

In this paper, elastic-plastic fracture mechanics analysis is performed to determine the critical crack sizes of the multipurpose canister (MPC) manufactured using austenitic stainless steel under dynamic loading conditions that simulate drop accidents. Firstly, dynamic finite element (FE) analysis is performed using Abaqus v.2018 with the KORAD (Korea Radioactive Waste Agency)-21 model under two drop accident conditions. Through the FE analysis, critical locations and through-thickness stress distributions in the MPC are identified, where the maximum plastic strain occurs during impact loadings. Then, the evaluation using the failure assessment diagram (FAD) is performed by postulating an external surface crack at the critical location to determine the critical crack depth. It is found that, for the drop cases considered in this paper, the principal failure mechanism for the circumferential surface crack is found to be the plastic collapse due to dominant high bending axial stress in the thickness. For axial cracks, the plastic collapse is also the dominant failure mechanism due to high membrane hoop stress, followed by the ductile tearing analysis. When incorporating the strain rate effect on yield strength and fracture toughness, the critical crack depth increases from 10 to 20%.