Search results for "homogenization"
showing 10 items of 74 documents
A computationally effective 3D Boundary Element Method for polycrystalline micromechanics
2015
An effective computational framework for homogenization and microcracking analysis of polycrystalline RVEs is presented. The method is based on a recently developed grain-boundary formulation for polycrystalline materials and several enhancements over the original technique are introduced to reduce the computational effort needed to model three-dimensional polycrystalline aggregates, which is highly desirable, especially in a multiscale perspective. First, a regularization scheme is used to remove pathological entities, usually responsible for unduly large mesh refinements, from Voronoi polycrystalline morphologies. Second, an improved meshing strategy is used, with an aim towards meshing r…
Virtual Element based formulations for computational materials micro-mechanics and homogenization
2021
In this thesis, a computational framework for microstructural modelling of transverse behaviour of heterogeneous materials is presented. The context of this research is part of the broad and active field of Computational Micromechanics, which has emerged as an effective tool both to understand the influence of complex microstructure on the macro-mechanical response of engineering materials and to tailor-design innovative materials for specific applications through a proper modification of their microstructure. While the classical continuum approximation does not account for microstructural details within the material, computational micromechanics allows detailed modelling of a heterogeneous…
Effects of voids and flaws on the mechanical properties and on intergranular damage and fracture for polycrystalline materials
2013
It is widely recognized that the macroscopic material properties depend on the features of the microstructure. The understanding of the links between microscopic and macroscopic material properties, main topic of Micromechanics, is of relevant technological interest, as it may enable the deep understanding of the mechanisms governing materials degradation and failure. Polycrystalline materials are used in many engineering applications. Their microstructure is determined by distribution, size, morphology, anisotropy and orientation of the crystals. It worth noting that also the physical-chemical properties of the intergranular interfaces, as well as the presence of micro-imperfections within…
Virtual Element Method: Micro-Mechanics Applications
2020
In this contribution we present an application of the lowest order Virtual Element Method (VEM) to the problem of material computational homogenization. Material homogenization allows retrieving material properties through suitable volume averaging procedures, starting from a detailed representation of the micro-constituents of the considered material. The representation of such microstructure constitutes a remarkable effort in terms of data/mesh preparation, especially when there is not evident microstructural regularity. For such a reason, computational micromechanics may represent a challenging benchmark for showing the potential of VEM. In this contribution, polycrystalline materials ar…
Dynamic response of equivalent orthotropic plate model for stiffened plate: numerical-experimental assessment
2017
Abstract Over the last two decades, homogenization-based modeling techniques have attracted considerable attention. In fact, through these methods, structures such as corrugated or stiffened plates, commonly referred to as structurally orthotropic plates, can be approximately studied as equivalent flat plates with orthotropic behavior. Specifically, these homogenization techniques allow for the direct determination of the equivalent flexural and torsional rigidities which appear in the governing equation for the deflection of the equivalent orthotropic plate. It is worth noting that, the determined equivalent material properties retain the dependence on the geometric parameters of the origi…
Modelling of electromagnetic heating and mixing conditions in glass melt output equipment
2011
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the outlet of a special glass melting system, which is used to control melt flow and modify flow pattern.Design/methodology/approachNumerical calculations in ANSYS and ANSYS CFX were used to study electromagnetic, thermal, hydrodynamic and chemical mixing processes, results are validated by comparison with experimental data.FindingsObtained results show that investigated approach can improve glass melt chemical homogeneity significantly – Lorentz force driven melt movement in conjunction with diffusion process ensures good mixing quality.Research limitations/implicationsThe mixing in glass melt is present only in azimuthal direction (in cyl…
Manual packing and soil reuse effects on determination of saturated hydraulic conductivity of a loam soil
2022
Abstract Performing laboratory measurement of saturated hydraulic conductivity, Ks, of sieved soil is important for many scientific purposes such as testing theories and methods to determine Ks. A given soil mass can be used only once or it can be reused after a previous use. Little is known on the dependence of the Ks measurements on both the applied packing method and the reuse of the same soil mass. This lack of knowledge makes comparisons among different investigations more or less uncertain. Four packing methods were tested on an initially dry loam soil by measuring Ks with the simplified falling head (SFH) technique. The four methods differed by the used compacting procedure (dropping…
The Mean-Field Limit for Solid Particles in a Navier-Stokes Flow
2008
We propose a mathematical derivation of Brinkman's force for a cloud of particles immersed in an incompressible viscous fluid. Specifically, we consider the Stokes or steady Navier-Stokes equations in a bounded domain Omega subset of R-3 for the velocity field u of an incompressible fluid with kinematic viscosity v and density 1. Brinkman's force consists of a source term 6 pi rvj where j is the current density of the particles, and of a friction term 6 pi vpu where rho is the number density of particles. These additional terms in the motion equation for the fluid are obtained from the Stokes or steady Navier-Stokes equations set in Omega minus the disjoint union of N balls of radius epsilo…
Effective elastic properties of biocomposites using 3D computational homogenization and X-ray microcomputed tomography
2021
A 3D computational homogenization method based on X-ray microcomputed tomography (μCT) was proposed and implemented to investigate how the fiber weight fraction, orthotropy and orientation distribution affect the effective elastic properties of regenerated cellulose fiber-polylactic acid (PLA) biocomposites. Three-dimensional microstructures reconstructed by means of the X-ray μCT were used as the representative volume elements (RVEs) and incorporated into the finite element solver within the computational homogenization framework. The present method used Euclidean bipartite matching technique so as to eliminate the generation of artificial periodic boundaries and use the in-situ solution d…
Protein-lipid interactions at the air-water interface.
2010
International audience; Protein−lipid interactions play an important role in a variety of fields, for example in pharmaceutical research, biosensing, or food science. However, the underlying fundamental processes that govern the interplay of lipids and proteins are often very complex and are therefore studied using model systems. Here, Langmuir monolayers were used to probe the interaction of a model protein with lipid films at the air−water interface. The protein β-lactoglobulin (βlg) is the major component in bovine milk serum, where it coexists with the milk fat globular membrane. During homogenization of milk, βlg adsorbs to the interface of lipid fat globules and stabilizes the oil-in-…