Study on implicit composite element method for seepage analysis in underground engineering

Based on the basic principle of the finite element method, the implicit composite element method for numerical simulation of seepage in underground engineering is proposed. In the simulation, the faults and drainage holes are set implicitly in the model elements without adding additional elements. Elements containing fault or drainage-hole data are termed composite elements. Then, their information data in model could be obtained. By determining the osmotic transmission matrix of the composite elements, the permeability coefficient matrix is then obtained. The method was applied to the numerical simulation of the seepage field around the underground powerhouse of the Ganhe Pumping Station in Yunnan, China, using a compiled three-dimensional finite element method calculation program. The rock mass around the site includes two faults. The seepage field in the rock mass was analyzed at different stages of the engineering project. The results show that, before the excavation of the underground caverns, the rock mass seepage is affected by the faults and the groundwater permeated down along the tangential fault plane. After the excavation of the caverns during the operation period, the groundwater is basically drained away and the underground caverns are mostly above the groundwater level. Thus, the calculation results of the engineering example verify the implicit composite method for the simulation of faults and drainage holes. This method can well meet the calculation demands of practical engineering.

Calibration of Discrete Element Heat Transfer Parameters by Central Composite Design

The efficiency and precision of parameter calibration in discrete element method （DEM） are not satisfactory, and parameter calibration for granular heat transfer is rarely involved. Accordingly, parameter calibration for granular heat transfer with the DEM is studied. The heat transfer in granular assemblies is simulated with DEM, and the effective thermal conductivity （ETC） of these granular assemblies is measured with the transient method in simulations. The measurement testbed is designed to test the ETC of the granular assemblies under normal pressure and a vacuum based on the steady method. Central composite design （CCD） is used to simulate the impact of the DEM parameters on the ETC of granular assemblies, and the heat transfer parameters are calibrated and compared with experimental data. The results show that, within the scope of the considered parameters, the ETC of the granular assemblies increases with an increasing particle thermal conductivity and decreases with an increasing particle shear modulus and particle diameter. The particle thermal conductivity has the greatest impact on the ETC of granular assemblies followed by the particle shear modulus and then the particle diameter. The calibration results show good agreement with the experimental results. The error is less than 4%, which is within a reasonable range for the scope of the CCD parameters. The proposed research provides high efficiency and high accuracy parameter calibration for granular heat transfer in DEM.

Microwave absorption properties of Ag naowires/carbon black composites

The composite that can absorb the high-performance electromagnetic（EM） wave is constructed into a sandwiched structure composed of carbon black（CB）/ethylene-vinyl acetate（EVA） and Ag naowires（Ag NWs）. The Ag NWs sandwiched between two CB/EVA layers are used to improve the absorption properties of composite. The effects of EVA-to-CB weight ratio, concentration and diameter of Ag NWs with a thickness of 0.4 mm on microwave absorption are investigated.The results indicate that for an EVA-to-CB weight ratio of 1：3, Ag NW concentration of 1.0 mg/100 m L, and average diameter of 56 nm, the reflection loss（RL） of the composite is below-10 d B in a frequency range of 9.3 Ghz–18.0 GHz, with the minimum values of-40.0 d B and-25.6 d B at 13.5 GHz and 15.3 GHz, respectively. A finite element method（FEM）is used for calculating the RL of the composite. The calculated results are in agreement with the experimental data.

Wave propagation of laminated composite plates via GPU-based wavelet finite element method

This paper presents a novel parallel implementation technology for wave-based structural health monitoring (SHM) in laminated composite plates. The wavelet-based B-spline wavelet on he interval (BSWI) element is constructed according to Hamilton’s principle, and the element by element algorithm is parallelly executed on graphics processing unit (GPU) using compute unified device architecture (CUDA) to get the responses in full wave field accurately. By means of the Fourier spectral analysis method,the Mindlin plate theory is selected for wave modeling of laminated composite plates while the Kirchhoff plate theory predicts unreasonably phase and group velocities. Numerical examples involving wave propagation in laminated composite plates without and with crack are performed and discussed in detail. The parallel implementation on GPU is accelerated 146 times comparing with the same wave motion problem executed on central processing unit (CPU). The validity and accuracy of the proposed parallel implementation are also demonstrated by comparing with conventional finite element method (FEM) and the computation time has been reduced from hours to minutes. The damage size and location have been successfully determined according to wave propagation results based on delay-and-sum (DAS). The results show that the proposed parallel implementation of wavelet finite element method (WFEM) is very appropriate and efficient for wave-based SHM in laminated composite plates.

COMPOSITE ELEMENT MODEL FOR ROCK MASS SEEPAGE FLOW

In this paper, the algorithm developed on the concept of the Composite Element Method （CEM） is proposed for the seepage flow in discontinuous rock masses, The basic idea is that if an element contains one or more discontinuity segments, it will be denoted as a composite element having a set of hydraulic potential values defined at its nodes. By the variation principle, the governing equation can be established to solve the unknown hydraulic potential values at the composite element nodes. The main advantage of the proposed model is that the generation of calculation mesh will not be restricted strongly by the number, the position and the orientation of the discontinuities, A numerical example is presented at the end of the paper, to show the validity of the proposed model.

Theoretical aspects of selecting repeated unit cell model in micromechanical analysis using displacement-based finite element method

Repeated Unit Cell（RUC）is a useful tool in micromechanical analysis of composites using Displacement-based Finite Element（DFE）method,and merely applying Periodic Displacement Boundary Conditions（PDBCs）to RUC is almost a standard practice to conduct such analysis.Two basic questions arising from this practice are whether Periodic Traction Boundary Conditions（PTBCs,also known as traction continuity conditions）are guaranteed and whether the solution is independent of selection of RUCs.This paper presents the theoretical aspects to tackle these questions,which unify the strong form,weak form and DFE method of the micromechanical problem together.Specifically,the solution’s independence of selection of RUCs is dealt with on the strong form side,PTBCs are derived from the weak form as natural boundary conditions,and the validity of merely applying PDBCs in micromechanical Finite Element（FE）analysis is proved by referring to its intrinsic connection to the strong form and weak form.Key points in the theoretical aspects are demonstrated by illustrative examples,and the merits of setting micromechanical FE analysis under the background of a clear theoretical framework are highlighted in the efficient selection of RUCs for Uni Directional（UD）fiber-reinforced composites.

Fracture Behavior of Epoxy Asphalt Pavement on Steel Bridges based on Optical Fiber Sensing Technology and Numerical Simulation

The distributed optical fiber sensing technology was used to investigate the fracture behavior of the Epoxy Asphalt Mixture. The spatial distribution and variation of the strain development with crack propagation were acquired using the brillouin optical time-domain reflectometer through the loading experiments of the composite beam structure. In addition, a finite element model of the composite beam structure was developed to analyze the mechanical responses of the epoxy asphalt mixture using the extended finite element method. The experimental results show that the development of crack propagation becomes instable with the increase of the load, and larger loads will generate deeper cracks. Moreover, the numerical results show that the mechanical response of the crack tip changes with the crack propagation, and the worst areas that subjected to crack damage are located on both sides of the composite beam structure.

Domain Decomposition Preconditioners for Discontinuous Galerkin Discretizations of Compressible Fluid Flows

In this article we consider the application of Schwarz-type domain decomposition preconditioners to the discontinuous Galerkin finite element approximation of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations.To discretize this system of conservation laws,we exploit the(adjoint consistent)symmetric version of the interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin finite element method.To define the necessary coarse-level solver required for the definition of the proposed preconditioner,we exploit ideas from composite finite element methods,which allow for the definition of finite element schemes on general meshes consisting of polygonal(agglomerated)elements.The practical performance of the proposed preconditioner is demonstrated for a series of viscous test cases in both two-and three-dimensions.