Application of 1D/3D finite elements coupling for structural nonlinear analysis

An element coupling model (ECM) method was proposed to simulate the global behavior and local damage of a structure.In order to reflect the local damage and improve the computational efficiency,three-dimensional (3D) solid elements and one-dimensional (1D) beam element were coupled by the multi-point constraint equations.A reduced scale 1?8 model test was simulated by the ECM and a full three dimensional model (3DM) contrastively.The results show that the global behavior and local damages of ECM agree well with the test and 3DM.It is indicated that the proposed method can be used in the structural nonlinear analysis accurately and efficiently.

An efficient SPH methodology for modelling mechanical characteristics of particulate composites

Particulate composites are one of the widely used materials in producing numerous state-of-the-art components in biomedical,automobile,aerospace including defence technology.Variety of modelling techniques have been adopted in the past to model mechanical behaviour of particulate composites.Due to their favourable properties,particle-based methods provide a convenient platform to model failure or fracture of these composites.Smooth particle hydrodynamics(SPH)is one of such methods which demonstrate excellent potential for modelling failure or fracture of particulate composites in a Lagrangian setting.One of the major challenges in using SPH method for modelling composite materials depends on accurate and efficient way to treat interface and boundary conditions.In this paper,a masterslave method based multi-freedom constraints is proposed to impose essential boundary conditions and interfacial displacement constraints in modelling mechanical behaviour of composite materials using SPH method.The proposed methodology enforces the above constraints more accurately and requires only smaller condition number for system stiffness matrix than the procedures based on typical penalty function approach.A minimum cut-off value-based error criteria is employed to improve the computational efficiency of the proposed methodology.In addition,the proposed method is further enhanced by adopting a modified numerical interpolation scheme along the boundary to increase the accuracy and computational efficiency.The numerical examples demonstrate that the proposed master-slave approach yields better accuracy in enforcing displacement constraints and requires approximately the same computational time as that of penalty method.

Healing Temperature of Hybrid Structures Based on Genetic Algorithm

The healing temperature of suspen-dome with stacked arches(SDSA)and arch-supported single-layer lattice shell structures was investigated based on the genetic algorithm. The temperature field of arch under solar radiation was derived by FLUENT to investigate the influence of solar radiation on the determination of the healing temperature. Moreover, a multi-scale model was established to apply the complex temperature field under solar radiation. The change in the mechanical response of these two kinds of structures with the healing temperature was discussed. It can be concluded that solar radiation has great influence on the healing temperature, and the genetic algorithm can be effectively used in the optimization of the healing temperature for hybrid structures.

Selective Activation of Intrinsic Cohesive Elements

In this paper, a selective activation strategy is studied in order to alleviate the issue of added compliance in the intrinsic cohesive zone model applied to arbitrary crack propagation. This strategy proceeds by first inserting cohesive elements between bulk elements and subsequently tying the duplicated nodes across the interface using controllable multi-point constraints before the analysis begins. Then, during the analysis, a part of the multi-point constraints are selectively released, thereby reactivating the corresponding cohesive elements and allowing cracks to initiate and propagate along the bulk element boundaries. The strategy is implemented in Abaqus/Standard using a user-defined multi-point constraint subroutine. Analysis results indicate that the strategy significantly alleviates the added compliance problem and reduces the computation time.

Optimal two-impulse space interception with multiple constraints

We consider optimal two-impulse space interception problems with multiple constraints.The multiple constraints are imposed on the terminal position of a space interceptor,impulse and impact instants,and the component-wise magnitudes of velocity impulses.These optimization problems are formulated as multi-point boundary value problems and solved by the calculus of variations.Slackness variable methods are used to convert all inequality constraints into equality constraints so that the Lagrange multiplier method can be used.A new dynamic slackness variable method is presented.As a result,an indirect optimization method is developed.Subsequently,our method is used to solve the two-impulse space interception problems of free-flight ballistic missiles.A number of conclusions for local optimal solutions have been drawn based on highly accurate numerical solutions.Specifically,by numerical examples,we show that when time and velocity impulse constraints are imposed,optimal two-impulse solutions may occur;if two-impulse instants are free,then a two-impulse space interception problem with velocity impulse constraints may degenerate to a one-impulse case.