Microdamage study of granite under thermomechanical coupling based on the particle flow code

The thermomechanical coupling of rocks refers to the interaction between the mechanical and thermodynamic behaviors of rocks induced by temperature changes.The study of this coupling interaction is essential for understanding the mechanical and thermodynamic properties of the surrounding rocks in underground engineering.In this study,an improved temperature-dependent linear parallel bond model is introduced under the framework of a particle flow simulation.A series of numerical thermomechanical coupling tests are then conducted to calibrate the micro-parameters of the proposed model by considering the mechanical behavior of the rock under different thermomechanical loadings.Good agreement between the numerical results and experimental data are obtained,particularly in terms of the compression,tension,and elastic responses of granite.With this improved model,the thermodynamic response and underlying cracking behavior of a deep-buried tunnel under different thermal loading conditions are investigated and discussed in detail.

A Coupled Thermomechanical Crack Propagation Behavior of Brittle Materials by Peridynamic Differential Operator

This study proposes a comprehensive,coupled thermomechanical model that replaces local spatial derivatives in classical differential thermomechanical equations with nonlocal integral forms derived from the peridynamic differential operator(PDDO),eliminating the need for calibration procedures.The model employs a multi-rate explicit time integration scheme to handle varying time scales in multi-physics systems.Through simulations conducted on granite and ceramic materials,this model demonstrates its effectiveness.It successfully simulates thermal damage behavior in granite arising from incompatible mineral expansion and accurately calculates thermal crack propagation in ceramic slabs during quenching.To account for material heterogeneity,the model utilizes the Shuffle algorithm andWeibull distribution,yielding results that align with numerical simulations and experimental observations.This coupled thermomechanical model shows great promise for analyzing intricate thermomechanical phenomena in brittle materials.

Effect of ballistic electrons on ultrafast thermomechanical responses of a thin metal film

The ultrafast thermomechanical coupling problem in a thin gold film irradiated by ultrashort laser pulses with different electron ballistic depths is investigated via the ultrafast thermoelasticity model. The solution of the problem is obtained by solving finite element governing equations. The comparison between the results of ultrafast thermomechanical coupling responses with different electron ballistic depths is made to show the ballistic electron effect. It is found that the ballistic electrons have a significant influence on the ultrafast thermomechanical coupling behaviors of the gold thin film and the best laser micromachining results can be achieved by choosing the specific laser technology（large or small ballistic range）.In addition, the influence of simplification of the ultrashort laser pulse source on the results is studied, and it is found that the simplification has a great influence on the thermomechanical responses, which implies that care should be taken when the simplified form of the laser source term is applied as the Gaussian heat source.

RECOVERY EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES OF TENSILE IMPACT

Based on loading-unloading test, tensile impact recovery experimental techniques have been developed to obtain the isothermal stress-strain curves of materials under high strain rates. The thermal softening effect can be decoupled by comparing the isothermal stress-strain curves with the adiabatic stress-strain curves at the same strain rate. In the present paper, recovery experiments of brass have been carried out on a self-designed rotating disk tensile impact apparatus. According to the parabolic strain hardening power-law thermo-viscoplastic constitutive model, strain hardening parameter, strain rates strengthening parameter and thermal softening synthetical parameter have been decoupled from experimental results. Furthermore, from these parameters, one can determine the theoretical isothermal curves and adiabatic curves at high strain rates well-coinciding the experimental results respectively. It indicates that the recovery experimental techniques of tensile impact are effective and reliable and are important means for the study of thermo-mechanical coupling. The experimental results also reveals that brass is a typical thermo-viscoplastic material.

Thermomechanical analysis of triangular zone cracks in vertical continuous casting slabs based on viscoelastic-plastic model

The triangular zone cracks in 2101 duplex stainless steel produced by the vertical continuous caster have troubled company A for a long time. To simulate the temperature and thermal stress distributions in the solidification process of 2101 duplex stainless steel produced by the vertical continuous caster, a two-dimensional viscoelastic-plastic thermomechanically coupled finite element model was established by the secondary development of the commercial nonlinear finite element analysis software MSC Marc. The results show that the thermal stress on the surface reaches a maximum at the exit of the mould, and the highest thermal stresses at the centre of the wide face and the narrow face are 75 and 115 MPa, respectively. Meanwhile, the internal temperature of slab is still higher than the solidus temperature, resulting in no thermal stress. The slab shows different high-temperature strengths and suffers from different stresses at different positions; thus, the risk of cracking also varies. At a location of 6-8 m from the meniscus, the temperature of the triangular zone is 1270-1360℃ and the corresponding permissible high-temperature strength is about 10-30 MPa, while the thermal stress at this time is 60 MPa, which is higher than the high-temperature strength. As a result, triangular zone cracks form easily.

Flexible and elastic thermal regulator for multimode intelligent temperature control

As nonlinear thermal devices,thermal regulators can intelligently respond to temperature and control heat flow through changes in heat transfer capacities,which allows them to reduce energy consumption without external intervention.However,current thermal regulators generally based on high-quality crystallinestructure transitions are intrinsically rigid,which may cause structural damage and functional failure under mechanical strain;moreover,they are difficult to integrate into emerging soft electronic platforms.In this study,we develop a flexible,elastic thermal regulator based on the reversible thermally induced deformation of a liquid crystal elastomer/liquid metal(LCE/LM)composite foam.By adjusting the crosslinking densities,the LCE foam exhibits a high actuation strain of 121%with flexibility below the nematic–isotropic phase transition temperature(TNI)and hyperelasticity above TNI.The incorporation of LMresults in a high thermal resistance switching ratio of 3.8 over a wide working temperature window of 60◦C with good cycling stability.This feature originates from the synergistic effect of fragmentation and recombination of the internal LM network and lengthening and shortening of the bond line thickness.Furthermore,we fabricate a“grid window”utilizing photic-thermal integrated thermal control,achieving a superior heat supply of 13.7℃ at a light intensity of 180mW/cm^(2)and a thermal protection of 43.4℃at 1200 mW/cm^(2).The proposed method meets the mechanical softness requirements of thermal regulatormaterials with multimode intelligent temperature control.

Frictional Heat-Induced Phase Transformation on Train Wheel Surface

By combining thermomechanical coupling finite element analysis with the characteristics of phase transformation [continuous cooling transformation （CCT） curve], the thermal fatigue behavior of train wheel steel under high speed and heavy load conditions was analyzed. The influence of different materials on the formation of the phase transformation zone of the wheel tread was discussed. The result showed that the peak temperature of wheel/track friction zone could be higher than the austenitizing temperature for braking. The depth of the austenitized region could reach a point of 0.9 mm beneath the wheel tread surface. The supercooled austenite is transformed to a hard and brittle martensite layer during the following rapid cooling process, which may lead to cracking and then spalling on the wheel tread surface. The decrease in carbon contents of the train wheel steel helps inhibit the formation of martensite by increasing the austenitizing temperature of the train wheel steel. When the carbon contents decrease from 0.7% to 0.4%, the Ac3 of the wheel steel is increased by 45 ℃, and the thickness of the martensite layer is de creased by 30 %, which is helpful in reducing the thermal cycling fatigue of the train wheel tread such as spalling.