Search results for "Finite element method"
showing 10 items of 746 documents
An Iterative Approach to Dynamic Elastic-Plastic Analysis
1998
The step-by-step analysis of structures constituted by elastic-plastic finite elements, subjected to an assigned loading history, is here considered. The structure may possess dynamic and/or not dynamic degrees-of-freedom. As it is well-known, at each step of analysis the solution of a linear complementarity problem is required. An iterative method devoted to solving the relevant linear complementarity problem is presented. It is based on the recursive solution of a linear complementarity, problem in which the constraint matrix is block-diagonal and deduced from the matrix of the original linear complementarity problem. The convergence of the procedure is also proved. Some particular cases …
On relation between J-integral and heat energy dissipation at the crack tip in stainless steel specimens
2019
In this paper, an experimental procedure to evaluate the elastic-plastic J-integral at the tip of a fatigue crack is presented. According to this new approach, the elastic component of the J-integral is derived from Thermoelastic Stress Analysis, while the plastic component of the J-integral is derived from the heat energy loss. An analytical link is proposed to apply this new experimental technique. Therefore, the elastic-plastic J-integral range was evaluated starting from infrared temperature maps measured in situ during crack propagation tests of AISI 304L stainless steel specimens. It was found that the range of the infrared thermography-based J-integral correlated well the crack growt…
Comparison of numerical modelling techniques for impact investigation on a wind turbine blade
2019
Wind turbine blades are exposed to numerous impact risks throughout their lifetimes. The impact risks range from bird collisions during operation to impacts with surrounding structures at the time of transportation and installation. Impact loads on the fibre composite blades can induce several complex, simultaneously interacting and visually undetectable damage modes and have a high potential to reduce the local and global blade stiffness. An assessment of such impact-induced damages is therefore necessary and usually involves high computational costs using numerical procedures, especially when analysing large composite components. To minimise this computational expense, different numerical…
Numerical investigation of rain droplet impact on offshore wind turbine blades under different rainfall conditions: A parametric study
2020
The leading edge of a fiber composite wind turbine blade (WTB) is prone to erosion damages due to repeated rain droplet impact during its service life. Such damages are critical to the blade's aerodynamic as well as structural performance, ultimately resulting in substantial repair costs. An effective design of a coating material for WTB is necessary and its analysis must include variables associated with erosive rain droplets such as (1) droplet diameter, (2) impact velocity, and (3) droplet impact angle. The present paper develops and validates a coupled fluid structure interaction (FSI) computational model for simulating rain droplet impact on WTBs, where the structure domain is modelled…
Nonlinear scaled models in 3D calculation of transformer magnetic circuits
2006
PurposeTo make easier and faster the designing of transformers using scale models.Design/methodology/approachThe scale modeling in designing of transformers is included. Both computer and physical models of high leakage reactance (HLR) and 3‐phase (TP3C) transformers have been considered. The 3D field computations have been executed for the scaled models, and the results were recalculated to the full‐scaled ones.FindingsIt is possible to calculate the scale coefficients for nonlinear models of transformers using finite element method (FEM) software. Obtained coefficients are useful in the designing process. Measurements confirm correctness of the scaling laws.Research limitations/implicatio…
Air gap fringing flux reduction in a high frequency inductor for a solar inverter
2013
In a gapped inductor, air gap fringing flux induces eddy currents in conductors in the vicinity of the air gap producing unwanted power loss and heat in the coil. This paper presents a detailed analysis to evaluate the performance changes of a high frequency inductor used in a solar inverter by new arrangement scheme of the air gap locations. The effect of air gap positioning in the core and the ac-resistance and leakage inductance of the high frequency inductor used in a solar inverter is investigated by using the 2-D finite element analysis. The simulation results show that a significant improvement can be achieved with limited changes in the air gap locations.
A comparison of numerical surface topography calculations in geodynamic modelling: an evaluation of the ‘sticky air’ method
2012
SUMMARY Calculating surface topography in geodynamic models is a common numerical problem. Besides other approaches, the so-called ‘sticky air’ approach has gained interest as a free-surface proxy at the top boundary. The often used free slip condition is thereby vertically extended by introducing a low density, low viscosityfluid layer. This allows the air/crust interface to behave in a similar manner to a true free surface. We present here a theoretical analysis that provides the physical conditions under which the sticky air approach is a valid approximation of a true free surface. Two cases are evaluated that characterize the evolution of topography on different timescales: (1) isostati…
Innovative straight formulation for plate in bending
2017
In this paper it has been introduced an innovative formulation for evaluating the deflection function of a simply supported plate loaded by uniformly distributed edge moments. Framed into Line Element-less Method, this formulation allows the evaluation of solution in terms of deflection, through few lines of algorithm implemented by Mathematica software without resorting to any discretization neither in the domain nor in the boundary. Interesting savings in terms of time and computational costs are achieved. Results obtained by the proposed method are well contrasted by ones obtained by classical methods and Finite Element Method.
Assessment of the Thermo-mechanical Performances of a DEMO Water-Cooled Liquid Metal Blanket Module
2015
Within the framework of DEMO R&D activities, a research cooperation has been launched between ENEA-Brasimone, CEA-Saclay and the University of Palermo to investigate the thermo-mechanical behaviour of the outboard equatorial module of the DEMO1 Water-Cooled Lithium Lead (WCLL) blanket, both under normal operation and over-pressurization steady state scenarios. The research campaign has been carried out following a theoretical-computational approach based on the finite element method (FEM) and adopting a qualified commercial FEM code. In particular, two different three-dimensional FEM models of the WCLL blanket module have been set-up to be used for normal operation and over-pressurization a…
Optimal measurement setup for damage detection in piezoelectric plates
2009
[EN] An optimization of the excitation-measurement configuration is proposed for the characterization of damage in PZT-4 piezoelectric plates, from a numerical point of view. To perform such an optimization, a numerical method to determine the location and extent of defects in piezoelectric plates is developed by combining the solution of an identification inverse problem, using genetic algorithms and gradient-based methods to minimize a cost functional, and using an optimized finite element code and meshing algorithm. In addition, a semianalytical estimate of the probability of detection is developed and validated, which provides a flexible criterion to optimize the experimental design. Th…