AN EQUIVALENT CONTINUUM METHOD OF LATTICE STRUCTURES

An equivalent continuum method is developed to analyze the effective stiffness of three-dimensional stretching dominated lattice materials. The strength and three-dimensional plastic yield surfaces are calculated for the equivalent continuum. A yielding model is formulated and compared with the results of other models. The bedding-in effect is considered to include the compliance of the lattice joints. The predicted stiffness and strength are in good agreement with the experimental data, validating the present model in the prediction of the mechanical properties of stretching dominated lattice structures.

Effects of fracture distribution and length scale on the equivalent continuum elastic compliance of fractured rock masses

Fracture systems have strong influence on the overall mechanical behavior of fractured rock masses dueto their relatively lower stiffness and shear strength than those of the rock matrix. Understanding theeffects of fracture geometrical distribution, such as length, spacing, persistence and orientation, isimportant for quantifying the mechanical behavior of fractured rock masses. The relation betweenfracture geometry and the mechanical characteristics of the fractured rock mass is complicated due tothe fact that the fracture geometry and mechanical behaviors of fractured rock mass are stronglydependent on the length scale. In this paper, a comprehensive study was conducted to determine theeffects of fracture distribution on the equivalent continuum elastic compliance of fractured rock massesover a wide range of fracture lengths. To account for the stochastic nature of fracture distributions, threedifferent simulation techniques involving Oda＇s elastic compliance tensor, Monte Carlo simulation （MCS）,and suitable probability density functions （PDFs） were employed to represent the elastic compliance offractured rock masses. To yield geologically realistic results, parameters for defining fracture distributionswere obtained from different geological fields. The influence of the key fracture parameters andtheir relations to the overall elastic behavior of the fractured rock mass were studied and discussed. Adetailed study was also carried out to investigate the validity of the use of a representative elementvolume （REV） in the equivalent continuum representation of fractured rock masses. A criterion was alsoproposed to determine the appropriate REV given the fracture distribution of the rock mass.

A new micromechanical approach of micropolar continuum modeling for 2-D periodic cellular material

In this paper, we present a new united approach to formulate the equivalent micropolar constitutive relation of two-dimensional（2-D） periodic cellular material to capture its non-local properties and to explain the size effects in its structural analysis. The new united approach takes both the displacement compatibility and the equilibrium of forces and moments into consideration, where Taylor series expansion of the displacement and rotation fields and the extended averaging procedure with an explicit enforcement of equilibrium are adopted in the micromechanical analysis of a unit cell.In numerical examples, the effective micropolar constants obtained in this paper and others derived in the literature are used for the equivalent micropolar continuum simulation of cellular solids. The solutions from the equivalent analysis are compared with the discrete simulation solutions of the cellular solids. It is found that the micropolar constants developed in this paper give satisfying results of equivalent analysis for the periodic cellular material.

Impact of stress on solute transport in a fracture network: A comparison study

This paper compares numerical modeling of the effect of stress on solute transport （advection and matrix diffusion） in fractured rocks in which fracture apertures are correlated with fracture lengths. It is mainly motivated by the performance and safety assessments of underground radioactive waste repositories. Five research teams used different approaches to model stress/deformation, flow and transport pro- cesses, based on either discrete fracture network or equivalent continuum models. The simulation results derived by various teams generally demonstrated that rock stresses could significantly influence solute transport processes through stress-induced changes in fracture apertures and associated changes in per- meability. Reasonably good agreement was achieved regarding advection and matrix diffusion given the same fracture network, while some observed discrepancies could be explained by different mechanical or transport modeling approaches.

Dynamic analysis and nonlinear identification of space deployable structure

The dynamic equivalent continuum modeling method of the mast which is based on energy equivalency principle was investigated. And three kinds of mast dynamic model were established, which were equivalent continuum model, finite element model and simulation model, respectively. The mast frequencies and mode shapes were calculated by these models and compared with each other. The error between the equivalent continuum model and the finite element model is less than 5% when the mast length is longer. Dynamic responses of the mast with different lengths are tested, the mode frequencies and mode shapes are compared with finite element model. The mode shapes match well with each other, while the frequencies tested by experiments are lower than the results of the finite element model, which reflects the joints lower the mast stiffness. The nonlinear dynamic characteristics are presented in the dynamic responses of the mast under different excitation force levels. The joint nonlinearities in the deployable mast are identified as nonlinear hysteresis contributed by the coulomb friction which soften the mast stiffness and lower the mast frequencies.

Nonlinear stability of double-deck reticulated circular shallow spherical shell

Based on the variational equation of the nonlinear bending theory of doubledeck reticulated shallow shells, equations of large deflection and boundary conditions for a double-deck reticulated circular shallow spherical shell under a uniformly distributed pressure are derived by using coordinate transformation means and the principle of stationary complementary energy. The characteristic relationship and critical buckling pressure for the shell with two types of boundary conditions are obtained by taking the modified iteration method. Effects of geometrical parameters on the buckling behavior are also discussed.