Numerical Exploration of Asymmetrical Impact Dynamics: Unveiling Nonlinearities in Collision Problems and Resilience of Reinforced Concrete Structures

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of collision and impact problems’ numerical solutions, focusing ongeometric, contact, and material nonlinearities, all essential in solving large deformation problems during a collision.The initial discussion revolves around the stress and strain of large deformation during a collision, followedby explanations of the fundamental finite element solution method for addressing such issues. The hourglassmode’s control methods, such as single-point reduced integration and contact-collision algorithms are detailedand implemented within the finite element framework. The paper further investigates the dynamic responseand failure modes of Reinforced Concrete (RC) members under asymmetrical impact using a 3D discrete modelin ABAQUS that treats steel bars and concrete connections as bond slips. The model’s validity was confirmedthrough comparisons with the node-sharing algorithm and system energy relations. Experimental parameterswere varied, including the rigid hammer’s mass and initial velocity, concrete strength, and longitudinal and stirrupreinforcement ratios. Findings indicated that increased hammer mass and velocity escalated RC member damage,while increased reinforcement ratios improved impact resistance. Contrarily, increased concrete strength did notsignificantly reduce lateral displacement when considering strain rate effects. The study also explores materialnonlinearity, examining different materials’ responses to collision-induced forces and stresses, demonstratedthrough an elastic rod impact case study. The paper proposes a damage criterion based on the residual axialload-bearing capacity for assessing damage under the asymmetrical impact, showing a correlation betweendamage degree hammer mass and initial velocity. The results, validated through comparison with theoreticaland analytical solutions, verify the ABAQUS program’s accuracy and reliability in analyzing impact problems,offering valuable insights into collision and impact problems’ nonlinearities and practical strategies for enhancingRC structures’ resilience under dynamic stress.

Nonlinear Contact Between Inner Walls of Deep Sea Pipelines in Buckling Process

In order to study buckling propagation mechanism in deep sea pipelines, the contact between pipeline's inner walls in buckling process was studied. A two-dimensional ring model was used to represent the pipeline and a nonlinear spring model was adopted to simulate the contact between inner walls. Based on the elastoplastic constitutive relationship and the principle of virtual work theory, the coupling effect of pipeline's nonlinear large deformation and wall contact was included in the theoretical analysis with the aid of MATLAB, and the application scope of the theoretical model was also discussed. The calculated results show that during the loading process, the change in external pressure is closely related to the distribution of section stress, and once the walls are contacting each other, the external pressure increases and then remains stable after it reaches a specific value. Without fracture, the pipeline section will stop showing deformation. The results of theoretical calculations agree well with those of numerical simulations. Finally, in order to ensure reliability and accuracy of the theoretical results, the collapse pressure and propagation pressure were both verified by numerical simulations and experiments. Therefore, the theoretical model can be used to analyze pipeline's buckling deformation and contact between pipeline's inner walls, which forms the basis for further research on three-dimensional buckling propagation.

Two-Layer Contact Nonlinear Mechanical Analysis of Flexible Drilling Tool in the Wellbore

The lack of research on flexible drilling tool leads to limited application of ultra-short radius horizontal wells.The flexible drilling tool is different from the conventional drilling tool.The flexible drilling pipe involves a mutual transition between the structure and the mechanism during the deformation process.At the same time,the flexible drilling pipe and the eccentric guide tube,the guide tube and the wellbore generate random contact.In this paper,3-D beam elements,universal joint elements,rigid beam elements and the beam-beam contact elements are combined to establish a two-layer contact nonlinear finite element model of the flexible drilling tool in the wellbore.The dynamic relaxation method is introduced for numerical solution.The feasibility of the model and the algorithm is verified by an example.The mechanical analysis of flexible drilling tool under the four hole inclinations in the oblique section is carried out.It is found that the flexible drilling pipe has a“folded line”deformation.The contact force between the flexible drilling pipe and the guide tube is randomly distributed.The contact force between the guide tube and the wellbore in the oblique section is greater than that in the vertical section.As the hole inclinations increase,the torque and axial force transmitted to the drill bit gradually decrease.

Passive inter-modulation scattering analysis of reflector considering contact nonlinearity

Passive inter-modulation （PIM） is a form of nonlinear distortion caused by the inherent nonlinearities of the passive devices and components in RF/microwave system. It will degenerate the performance of communication system with broad-band channel and high-sensitivity receiver. Therefore, it is necessary to construct a model to simulate this process in order to predict the level of PIM. This paper is aimed at constructing some plate models with one-dimensional and two-dimensional contact nonlinearity sections illuminated by two-tone waves, and calculating the scattered field at a fixed-point in space using time-domain physical optics method. By taking fast Fourier transform （FFT）, we get the spectrum of the scattered field and then analyze the generated PIM products. At the end of this paper, some numerical examples are presented to show the influence rules of the relative factors on PIM. The results indicate the variation of the level of PIM with the number of the nonlinear regions, the nonlinear spacing, and the incident power levels.

Running safety assessment of a train traversing a three-tower cable-stayed bridge under spatially varying ground motion

To explore the influence of spatially varying ground motion on the dynamic behavior of a train passing through a three-tower cable-stayed bridge,a 3D train–track–bridge coupled model is established for accurately simulating the train–bridge interaction under earthquake excitation,which is made up of a vehicle model built by multi-body dynamics,a track–bridge finite element model,and a 3D rolling wheel–rail contact model.A conditional simulation method,which takes into consideration the wave passage effect,incoherence effect,and site-response effect,is adopted to simulate the spatially varying ground motion under different soil conditions.The multi-time-step method previously proposed by the authors is also adopted to improve computational efficiency.The dynamic responses of the train running on a three-tower cablestayed bridge are calculated with differing earthquake excitations and train speeds.The results indicate that(1)the earthquake excitation significantly increases the responses of the train–bridge system,but at a design speed,all the running safety indices meet the code requirements;(2)the incoherence and site-response effects should also be considered in the seismic analysis for long-span bridges though there is no fixed pattern for determining their influences;(3)different train speeds that vary the vibration characteristics of the train–bridge system affect the vibration frequencies of the car body and bridge.

Microcrack localization using a collinear Lamb wave frequency-mixing technique in a thin plate

A novel Lamb wave frequency-mixing technique is proposed for locating microcracks in a thin plate,which does not require the resonance condition of Lamb wave mixing and can accurately locate the microcracks through only one-time sensing.Based on the bilinear stress-strain constitutive model,a two-dimensional finite element(FE)model is built to investigate the frequency-mixing response induced by the interaction between two primary Lamb waves and a microcrack.When two primary Lamb waves of A0 and S0 modes with different frequencies excited on the same side of the plate simultaneously impinge on the examined microcrack,under the modulation of the contact acoustic nonlinearity,the microcrack itself can be deemed as the secondary sound source and it will radiate the Lamb waves of new combined frequencies.Based on the time of flight of the generated A0 mode at difference frequency,an indicator named normalized amplitude index(NAI)is defined to directly locate the multi-microcracks in the given plate.It is found that the number and location of the microcracks can be intuitively visualized by using the NAI based frequency-mixing technique.It is also demonstrated that the proposed frequency mixing technique is a promising approach for the microcrack localization.

Experimental and numerical study on microcrack detection using contact nonlinear acoustics

This paper introduces a non-classical nonlinear acoustic theory for microcrack detection in materials,comparing contact nonlinearity with material nonlinearity.The paper's main work concentrates on the experimental and numerical verification of the effectivity of contact nonlinear acoustic detection by using the contact nonlinear parameter fl',which can be represented by the ratio of the second-harmonic amplitude to the square of the firstharmonic amplitude.Both experiments and numerical tests are performed.The results show that fl'is sensitive to the initiation of microcracks and varies with the development of the microcracks.The numerical test illustrates the decline offl'when microcracks penetrate each other.

A nonlinear equivalent circuit method for analysis of passive intermodulation of mesh reflectors

Passive intermodulation（PIM） has gradually become a serious electromagnetic interference due to the development of high-power and high-sensitivity RF/microwave communication systems, especially large deployable mesh reflector antennas. This paper proposes a field-circuit coupling method to analyze the PIM level of mesh reflectors. With the existence of many metal–metal（MM） contacts in mesh reflectors, the contact nonlinearity becomes the main reason for PIM generation. To analyze these potential PIM sources, an equivalent circuit model including nonlinear components is constructed to model a single MM contact so that the transient current through the MM contact point induced by incident electromagnetic waves can be calculated. Taking the electric current as a new electromagnetic wave source, the far-field scattering can be obtained by the use of electromagnetic numerical methods or the communication link method. Finally, a comparison between simulation and experimental results is illustrated to verify the validity of the proposed method.

Time-domain Spectral Finite Element Method for Wave Propagation Analysis in Structures with Breathing Cracks

Guided waves are generally considered as a powerful approach for crack detection in structures,which are commonly investigated using the finite element method(FEM).However,the traditional FEM has many disadvantages in solving wave propagation due to the strict requirement of mesh density.To tackle this issue,this paper proposes an efficient time-domain spectral finite element method(SFEM)to analyze wave propagation in cracked structures,in which the breathing crack is modeled by definiiig the spectral gap element.Moreover,novel orthogonal polynomials and Gauss-Lobatto-Legendre quadrature rules are adopted to construct the spectral element.Meanwhile,a separable hard contact is utilized to simulate the breathing behavior.Finally,a comparison of the numerical results between the FEM and the SFEM is conducted to demonstrate the high efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method.Based on the developed SFEM,the nonlinear features of waves and influence of the incident mode are also studied in detail,which provides a helpful guide for a physical understanding of the wave propagation behavior in structures with breathing cracks.