Meter-Scale Thin-Walled Structure with Lattice Infill for Fuel Tank Supporting Component of Satellite:Multiscale Design and Experimental Verification

Lightweight thin-walled structures with lattice infill are widely desired in satellite for their high stiffness-to-weight ratio and superior buckling strength resulting fromthe sandwich effect.Such structures can be fabricated bymetallic additive manufacturing technique,such as selective laser melting(SLM).However,the maximum dimensions of actual structures are usually in a sub-meter scale,which results in restrictions on their appliance in aerospace and other fields.In this work,a meter-scale thin-walled structure with lattice infill is designed for the fuel tank supporting component of the satellite by integrating a self-supporting lattice into the thickness optimization of the thin-wall.The designed structure is fabricated by SLM of AlSi10Mg and cold metal transfer welding technique.Quasi-static mechanical tests and vibration tests are both conducted to verify the mechanical strength of the designed large-scale lattice thin-walled structure.The experimental results indicate that themeter-scale thin-walled structure with lattice infill could meet the dimension and lightweight requirements of most spacecrafts.

Boundary Element Analysis forModeⅢCrack Problems of Thin-Walled Structures from Micro-to Nano-Scales

This paper develops a new numerical framework for modeⅢcrack problems of thin-walled structures by integrating multiple advanced techniques in the boundary element literature.The details of special crack-tip elements for displacement and stress are derived.An exponential transformation technique is introduced to accurately calculate the nearly singular integral,which is the key task of the boundary element simulation of thin-walled structures.Three numerical experiments with different types of cracks are provided to verify the performance of the present numerical framework.Numerical results demonstrate that the present scheme is valid for modeⅢcrack problems of thin-walled structures with the thickness-to-length ratio in the microscale,even nanoscale,regime.

Geometric Accuracy and Energy Absorption Characteristics of 3D Printed Continuous Ramie Fiber Reinforced Thin-Walled Composite Structures

The application of continuous natural fibers as reinforcement in composite thin-walled structures offers a feasible approach to achieve light weight and high strength while remaining environmentally friendly.In addition,additive manufacturing technology provides a favorable process foundation for its realization.In this study,the printability and energy absorption properties of 3D printed continuous fiber reinforced thin-walled structures with different configurations were investigated.The results suggested that a low printing speed and a proper layer thickness would mitigate the printing defects within the structures.The printing geometry accuracy of the structures could be further improved by rounding the sharp corners with appropriate radii.This study successfully fabricated structures with vari-ous configurations characterized by high geometric accuracy through printing parameters optimization and path smoothing.Moreover,the compressive property and energy absorption characteristics of the structures under quasi-static axial compression were evaluated and compared.It was found that all studied thin-walled structures exhibited progressive folding deformation patterns during compression.In particular,energy absorption process was achieved through the combined damage modes of plastic deformation,fiber pullout and delamination.Furthermore,the com-parison results showed that the hexagonal structure exhibited the best energy absorption performance.The study revealed the structure-mechanical property relationship of 3D printed continuous fiber reinforced composite thin-walled structures through the analysis of multiscale failure characteristics and load response,which is valuable for broadening their applications.

Dynamic Response of A Group of Cylindrical Storage Tanks with Baffles Considering the Effect of Soil Foundation

The sloshing in a group of rigid cylindrical tanks with baffles and on soil foundation under horizontal excitation is studied analytically.The solutions for the velocity potential are derived out by the liquid subdomain method.Equivalent models with mass-spring oscillators are established to replace continuous fluid.Combined with the least square technique,Chebyshev polynomials are employed to fit horizontal,rocking and horizontal-rocking coupling impedances of soil,respectively.A lumped parameter model for impedance is presented to describe the effects of soil on tank structures.A mechanical model for the soil-foundation-tank-liquid-baffle system with small amount of calculation and high accuracy is proposed using the substructure technique.The analytical solutions are in comparison with data from reported literature and numerical codes to validate the effectiveness and correctness of the model.Detailed dynamic properties and seismic responses of the soil-tank system are given for the baffle number,size and location as well as soil parameter.

Numerical Analyses of Bearing Capacity of Deep-Embedded Large-Diameter Cylindrical Structure on Soft Ground Against Lateral Loads

Presented in this paper is a three-dimensional plastic limit analysis method of bearing capacity of the deeply-embedded large-diameter cylindrical structure in the cross-anisotmpic soft ground. The most likely failure mechanism is assumed to be of a composite rupture surface which is composed of an individual wedge in the passive zone or two wedges in both active and passive zones near the mudline, depending on the separation or bonding state at the interface between the cylindrical structure and neighboring soils in the active wedge, and a truncated spherical slip surface at the base of the cylinder when the structure tends to overturn around a point located on the symmetry axis of the structure. The cylindrical structure and soil interaction system under consideration is also numerically analyzed by the finite element method by virtue of the general-purpose FEM software ABAQUS, in which the soil is assumed to obey tie Hill＇s criterion of yield. Both the failure mechanism assumed and the plastic limit analysis predictions are validated by numerical computations based on FEM. For the K0-consolidated ground of clays typically with anisotropic undrained strength property, it is indicated through a parametric study that limit analysis without consideration of anisotropy of soil overestimates the lateral ultimate bearing capacity of a deeply-embedded cylindrical structure in soft ground in a certain condition.

Energy-absorption forecast of thin-walled structure by GA-BP hybrid algorithm

In order to analyze the influence rule of experimental parameters on the energy-absorption characteristics and effectively forecast energy-absorption characteristic of thin-walled structure, the forecast model of GA-BP hybrid algorithm was presented by uniting respective applicability of back-propagation artificial neural network （BP-ANN） and genetic algorithm （GA）. The detailed process was as follows. Firstly, the GA trained the best weights and thresholds as the initial values of BP-ANN to initialize the neural network. Then, the BP-ANN after initialization was trained until the errors converged to the required precision. Finally, the network model, which met the requirements after being examined by the test samples, was applied to energy-absorption forecast of thin-walled cylindrical structure impacting. After example analysis, the GA-BP network model was trained until getting the desired network error only by 46 steps, while the single BP-ANN model achieved the same network error by 992 steps, which obviously shows that the GA-BP hybrid algorithm has faster convergence rate. The average relative forecast error （ARE） of the SEA predictive results obtained by GA-BP hybrid algorithm is 1.543%, while the ARE of the SEA predictive results obtained by BP-ANN is 2.950%, which clearly indicates that the forecast precision of the GA-BP hybrid algorithm is higher than that of the BP-ANN.

Large-area straight,regular periodic surface structures produced on fused silica by the interference of two femtosecond laser beams through cylindrical lens

Inhomogeneity and low efficiency are two important factors that limit the application of laser-induced periodic surface structures(LIPSSs),especially on glass surfaces.In this study,two-beam interference(TBI)of femtosecond lasers was used to produce large-area straight LIPSSs on fused silica using cylindrical lenses.Compared with those produced us-ing a single circular or cylindrical lens,the LIPSSs produced by TBI are much straighter and more regular.Depending on the laser fluence and scanning velocity,LIPSSs with grating-like or spaced LIPSSs are produced on the fused silica sur-face.Their structural colors are blue,green,and red,and only green and red,respectively.Grating-like LIPSS patterns oriented in different directions are obtained and exhibit bright and vivid colors,indicating potential applications in surface coloring and anti-counterfeiting logos.

Solidified structure of thin-walled titanium parts by vertical centrifugal casting

The solidified structure of the thin-walled and complicated Ti-6AI-4V castings produced by the vertical centrifugal casting process was studied in the present work. The results show that the wall thickness of the section is featured with homogeneously distributed fine equiaxial grains, compared with the microstructure of the thick-walled section. The grain size of the castings has a tendency to decrease gradually with the increasing of the centrifugal radius. The inter-lamellar space in thick-walled casting parts is bigger than that of the thin-walled parts, and the profile of inter-lamellar space is not susceptible to the centrifugal radius.

Dynamic Analysis of Non-Symmetric Functionally Graded (FG) Cylindrical Structure under Shock Loading by Radial Shape Function Using Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) Method with Nonlinear Grading Patterns

In this paper,dynamic behavior of non-symmetric Functionally Graded(FG)cylindrical structure under shock loading is carried out.Dynamic equations in the polar coordinates are drawn out using Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin(MLPG)method.Nonlinear volume fractions are used for radial direction to simulate the mechanical properties of Functionally Graded Material(FGM).To solve dynamic equations of nonsymmetric FG cylindrical structure in the time domain,the MLPG method are combined with the Laplace transform method.For computing the inverse Laplace transform in the present paper,the Talbot algorithm for the numerical inversion is used.To verify the obtained results by the MLPG method,these results are compared with the analytical solution and the Finite Element Method(FEM).The obtained results through the MLPG method show a good agreement in comparison to other results and the MLPG method has high accuracy for dynamic analysis of non-symmetric FG cylindrical structure.The capability of the present method to dynamic analysis of non-symmetric FG cylindrical structure is demonstrated by dynamic analysis of the cylinder with different volume fraction exponents under harmonic and rectangular shock loading.The present method shows high accuracy,efficiency and capability to dynamic analysis of non-symmetric FG cylindrical structure with nonlinear grading patterns,which furnishes a ground for a more flexible design.

Numerical Simulation of Large Diameter Cylindrical Structure Slamming

The water entry of large diameter cylindrical structure is studied by applying numerical simulation method. The processes of different diameter cyhndrical structures impacting water with various constant velocities are calculated numerically. Thereafter, analyzed are the distribution of slamming pressure on structure during slamming course and the influence of slamming velocity and cylindrical diameter on slamming process. Furthermore, presented herein is an equation being used to forecast the peak slamming force on a large diameter cylindrical structure.

Structure design and characteristics analysis of a cylindrical giant magnetostrictive actuator for ball screw preload

In order to achieve automatic adjustment of the double-nut ball screw preload, a magnetostrictive ball screw preload system is proposed. A new cylindrical giant magnetostrictive actuator （CGMA）, which is the core component of the preload system, is developed using giant magnetostrictive material （GMM） with a hole. The pretightening force of the CGMA is determined by testing. And the magnetic circuit analysis method is introduced to calculate magnetic field intensity of the actuator with a ball screw shaft. To suppress the thermal effects on the magnetostrictive outputs, an oil cooling method which can directly cool the heat source is adopted. A CGMA test platform is established and the static and dynamic output characteristics are respectively studied. The experimental results indicate that the CGMA has good linearity and no double-frequency effect under the bias magnetic field and the output accuracy of the CGMA is significantly improved with cooling measures. Although the output decreased with screw shaft through the actuator, the performance of CGMA meets the design requirements for ball screw preload with output displacement more than 26 μm and force up to 6200 N. The development of a CGMA will provide a new approach for automatic adjustment of double-nut ball screw preload.

Dynamic Wave Pressures on Deeply Embedded Large Cylindrical Structures due to Random Waves

The response of dynamic wave pressures on structures would be more complicated and bring about new phenomena under the dynamic interaction between soil and structure. In order to better understand the response characteristics on deeply embedded large cylindrical structures under random waves, and accordingly to offer valuable findings for engineering, the authors designed wave flume experiments to investigate comparatively dynamic wave pressures on a single and on continuous cylinders with two different embedment depths in response to two wave spectra.The time histories of the water surface elevation and the corresponding dynamic wave pressures exerted on the cylinder were analyzed in the frequency domain. By calculating the transfer function and spectral density for dynamic wave pressures along the height and around the circumference of the cylinder, experimental results of the single cylinder were compared with the theoretical results based on the linear diffraction theory, and detailed comparisons were also carried out between the single and continuous cylinders. Some new findings and the corresponding analysis are reported in present paper. The investigation on continuous cylinders will be used in particular for reference in engineering applications because information is scarce on studying such kind of problem both analytically and experimentally.

Dynamic Structure-Fluid Interaction Response of a Composite Cylindrical Shell Submerged in Water

This paper analyzes the dynamic structure-fluid interaction response of a submerged composite cylindrical shell. Dynamic equations based on the first-order shear deformation theory include the initial stresses and structure-fluid interaction forces due to fluid. The field equation is solved by expanding the velocity potential into series similar to transverse deflection of the cylindrical shell and the structure-fluid interaction force is obtained. The dynamic response is investigated by means of series expansion method. The effects of structure-fluid interaction on dynamic response are discussed.

Elastoplastic analysis of thin-walled structures in reservoir area

In the structural design of the high pier,in order to analyze the strength and structure stability,the pier was often considered a thin-walled structure.Elastoplastic incremental theory was used to establish the model of elastoplastic stability of high pier.By considering the combined action of pile,soil and pier together,the destabilization bearing capacity was calculated by using 3-D finite element method(3-D FEM) for piers with different pile and section height.Meanwhile,the equivalent stress in different sections of pier was computed and the processor of destabilization was discussed.When the pier is lower,the bearing capacity under mutual effect of pile,soil and pier is less than the situation when mutual effect is not considered;when the pier is higher,their differences are not conspicuous.Along with the increase of the cross-sectional height,the direction of destabilization bearing capacity is varied and the ultimate capacity is buildup.The results of a stability analysis example are almost identical with the practice.

Dynamic stiffness for thin-walled structures by power series

The dynamic stiffness method is introduced to analyze thin-walled structures including thin-walled straight beams and spatial twisted helix beam. A dynamic stiffness matrix is formed by using frequency dependent shape functions which are exact solutions of the governing differential equations. With the obtained thin-walled beam dynamic stiffness matrices, the thin-walled frame dynamic stiffness matrix can also be formulated by satisfying the required displacements compatibility and forces equilib-rium, a method which is similar to the finite element method (FEM). Then the thin-walled structure natural frequencies can be found by equating the determinant of the system dynamic stiffness matrix to zero. By this way, just one element and several elements can exactly predict many modes of a thin-walled beam and a spatial thin-walled frame, respectively. Several cases are studied and the results are compared with the existing solutions of other methods. The natural frequencies and buckling loads of these thin-walled structures are computed.

Emerging Challenges for Numerical Simulations of Quasi-Static Collision Experiments on Laser-Welded Thin-Walled Steel Structures

This paper re-evaluates recently published quasi-static tests on laser-welded thin-walled steel structures in order to discuss the fundamental challenges in collision simulations based on finite element analysis.Clamped square panels were considered,with spherical indenter positioned at the mid-span of the stiffeners and moved along this centerline in order to change the load-carrying mechanism of the panels.Furthermore,the use of panels with single-sided flat bar stiffening and web-core sandwich panels enabled the investigation of the effect of structural topology on structural behavior and strength.The changes in loading position and panel topology resulted in different loading,structural and material gradients.In web-core panels,these three gradients occur at the same locations making the panel global responses sensitive for statistical variations and the failure process time-dependent.In stiffened panel with reduced structural gradient,this sensitivity and time-dependency in failure process is not observed.These observations set challenges to numerical simulations due to spatial and temporal discretization as well as the observed microrotation,which is beyond the currently used assumptions of classical continuum mechanics.Therefore,finally,we discuss the potential of non-classical continuum mechanics as remedy to deal with these phenomena and provide a base for necessary development for future.

Improvement of Cylindrical Cloak by Layered Structure of Homogeneous Isotropic Materials

The perfect cylindrical cloak requires three spatial variant material parameters, which is very difficult to realize in practice [Science 312, 1780 (2006)]. The approach of realizing the electromagnetic cloaking by concentric layered structures instead of using the metamaterial was presented [Optics Express, Vol. 15, No. 18 (2007)]. We use the concentric layered structures to realize a simplified cylindrical cloak with improved parameters and an ideal cylindrical cloak with spatially invariant axial material parameters. Numerical simulation results validate that cloaking performance is significantly improved compared with previously proposed multilayered cloak.

LOCALIZED ANALYSIS OF THIN-WALLED STRUCTURE’S BUCKLING/INITIAL POST-BUCKLING AND ITS ACCURACY

A method of localization is proposed to lower the high order of equations in FEM calcula- tion for the stability of a complex thin-walled structure.The localized analysis enables us to obtain both the upper and lower limits for the bifurcating point in a whole linear elastic structural system,as well as an ap- proximate solution to asymptotic post-buckling problem.Some numerical examples are included.

INVESTIGATION ON INSTABLE STANDARD OF EMBEDDED CYLINDRICAL STRUCTURE

The control value of the deflection of the embedded cylindrical structure, which is the maximum deflection allowed for stability of the cylinder, is a vital quantity of stability calculation. The deflection and the soil pressure on the embedded cylinder were investigated by model experiment. When the inclined angle of cylinder is less than or equal to 0.25°, the effective anti-overturning ratio increases gradually and reaches the maximum. When the inclined angle of cylinder is more than 0.25°, the effective anti-overturning ratio decreases gradually. The control value of instability of the cylindrical structure approximates 0.2°. and the bearing stress at the back edge of the cylinder is equal to zero.

Optimization Design of an Embedded Multi-Cell Thin-Walled Energy Absorption Structures with Local Surface Nanocrystallization

Bymeans of the local surface nanocrystallization that enables to change the material on local positions,an innovative embedded multi-cell(EMC)thin-walled energy absorption structures with local surface nanocrystallization is proposed in this paper.The local surface nanacrystallization stripes are regarded as the moving morphable components in the domain for optimal design.Results reveal that after optimizing the local surface nanocrystallization layout,the specific energy absorption(SEA)is increased by 50.78%compared with the untreated counterpart.Besides,in contrast with the optimized 4-cell structure,the SEA of the nanocrystallized embedded 9-cell structure is further enhanced by 27.68%,in contrast with the 9-cell structure,the SEA of the nanocrystallized embedded clapboard type 9-cell structure is enhanced by 3.61%.Thismethod provides a guidance for the design of newenergy absorption devices.