• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.4 no.6
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• pp.631-644
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• 1996

Geomaterials such as soil and rock are composed of discrete elements of microstructures with different grains and microcracks. The studies of these microstructures are of increasing interest in geophysics and geotechnical engineering relating to underground space development We first show experimental results undertaken for direct observation of microcrack initiation and propagation by using a newly developed experimental system, and next a homogenization method for treating a viscoelastic behavior of a polycrystalline rock.

• Journal of the Korean Mathematical Society
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.1041-1069
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• 2009

We study the periodic homogenization of the non-stationary Stokes equations. The fundamental homogenization theorem and corrector theorem are proved under a very general assumption on the viscosity coefficients and data. The proofs are based on a weak formulation suitable for an application of classical Tartar's method of oscillating test functions. Such a weak formulation is derived by adapting an argument in Teman's book [Navier-Stokes Equations: Theory and Numerical Analysis, North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1984].

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1365-1381
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• 2023

In this paper, a procedure for evaluating the structural integrity of the PCSG (Printed Circuit Steam Generator) unit block is presented with a simplified FE (finite element) analysis technique by applying the homogenization method. The homogenization method converts an inhomogeneous elastic body into a homogeneous elastic body with same mechanical behaviour. This method is effective when the inhomogeneous elastic body has repetitive microstructures, and thus the method was applied to the sheet assembly among the PCSG unit block components. From the method, the homogenized equivalent elastic constants of the sheet assembly were derived. The validity of the determined material properties was verified by comparing the mechanical behaviour with the reference model. Thermo-mechanical analysis was then performed to evaluate the structural integrity of the PCSG unit block, and it was found that the contact region between the steam header and the sheet assembly is a critical point where large bending stress occurs due to the temperature difference.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.4 no.6
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• pp.613-630
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• 1996

The homogenization method is used to develop a beam element in space for thermo-mechanical analysis of unidirectional composites. Local stress and temperature field in the microscale are described using the function of homogenization. The global (macroscopic) behaviour of the structure is supposed to be that of a beam. Beam-type kinematical hypotheses (including independent shear rotations) are hence applied and superposed on the microdescription. A macroscopic stiffness matrix for such a beam element is then developed which contains the microscale properties of the single cell of periodicity. The presented model enables us to analyse without too much computational effort complicated composite structures such as e.g. toroidal coils of a fusion reactor. We need only a FE mesh sufficiently fine for a correct description of the local geometry of a single cell and a few of the newly developed elements for the description of the global behaviour. An unsmearing procedure gives the stress and temperature field in the different materials of a single cell.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.565-576
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• 1997

The material-based homogenization design method generates arbitrary topologies of initial structural design as well as reinforcement structural design by controlling the amount of material available. However, if a small volume constraint is specified in the design of Lightweight structures, thin and slender structures are usually obtained. For these structures stability becomes one of the most important requirements. Thus, to prevent overall buckling (that is, to increase stability), the objective of the design is to maximize the buckling load of a structure. In this paper, the buckling analysis is restricted to the linear buckling behavior of a structure. The global stability requirement is defined as a stiffness constraint, and determined by solving the eigenvalue problem. The optimality conditions to update the design variables are derived based on the sequential convex approximation method and the dual method. Illustrated examples are presented to validate the feasibility of this method in the design of structures.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.315-321
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• 2012

In this study, a sequential multiscale homogenization method to characterize the effective thermal conductivity of nano particulate polymer nanocomposites is proposed through a molecular dynamics(MD) simulations and a finite element-based homogenization method. The thermal conductivity of the nanocomposites embedding different-sized nanoparticles at a fixed volume fraction of 5.8% are obtained from MD simulations. Due to the Kapitza thermal resistance, the thermal conductivity of the nanocomposites decreases as the size of the embedded nanoparticle decreases. In order to describe the nanoparticle size effect using the homogenization method with accuracy, the Kapitza interface in which the temperature discontinuity condition appears and the effective interphase zone formed by highly densified matrix polymer are modeled as independent phases that constitutes the nanocomposites microstructure, thus, the overall nanocomposites domain is modeled as a four-phase structure consists of the nanoparticle, Kapitza interface, effective interphase, and polymer matrix. The thermal conductivity of the effective interphase is inversely predicted from the thermal conductivity of the nanocomposites through the multiscale homogenization method, then, exponentially fitted to a function of the particle radius. Using the multiscale homogenization method, the thermal conductivities of the nanocomposites at various particle radii and volume fractions are obtained, and parametric studies are conducted to examine the effect of the effective interphase on the overall thermal conductivity of the nanocomposites.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.43-52
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• 2012

To compute a permeability coefficient along a rough fracture that takes into account the fracture geometry, this study performed detailed measurements of fracture roughness using a confocal laser scanning microscope, a quantitative analysis of roughness using a spectral analysis, and a homogenization analysis to calculate the permeability coefficient on the microand macro-scale. The homogenization analysis is a type of perturbation theory that characterizes the behavior of microscopically inhomogeneous material with a periodic boundary condition in the microstructure. Therefore, it is possible to analyze accurate permeability characteristics that are represented by the local effect of the facture geometry. The Cpermeability coefficients that are calculated using the homogenization analysis for each rough fracture model exhibit an irregular distribution and do not follow the relationship of the cubic law. This distribution suggests that the permeability characteristics strongly depend on the geometric conditions of the fractures, such as the roughness and the aperture variation. The homogenization analysis may allow us to produce more accurate results than are possible with the preexisting equations for calculating permeability.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.707-720
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• 2013

We analyze piecewise homogenization with flux-weighted cross sections and preservation of averaged currents at the boundary of the homogenized domain. Introduction of a set of flux discontinuity ratios (FDR) that preserve reference interface currents leads to preservation of averaged region reaction rates and fluxes. We consider the class of numerical discretizations with one degree of freedom per volume and per surface and prove that when the homogenization and computing meshes are equal there is a unique solution for the FDRs which exactly preserve interface currents. For diffusion submeshing we introduce a Jacobian-Free Newton-Krylov method and for all cases considered obtain an 'exact' numerical solution (eight digits for the interface currents). The homogenization is completed by extending the familiar full assembly homogenization via flux discontinuity factors to the sides of regions laying on the boundary of the piecewise homogenized domain. Finally, for the familiar nodal discretization we numerically find that the FDRs obtained with no submesh (nearly at no cost) can be effectively used for whole-core diffusion calculations with submesh. This is not the case, however, for cell-centered finite differences.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.61-77
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• 2018

This paper establish a high concentration ratio approximation of linear elastic properties of materials with periodic microstructure with cubic inclusions. The approximation is derived using first few terms of power series expansion of the solution of the equivalent eigenstrain problem with a homogeneous eigenstrain approximation. Viability of the approximation at high concentration ratios is proved by comparison with a numerical solution of the homogenization problem. To this end some theoretical result of symmetry properties of the homogenization problem are given. Using these results efficient numerical computation on a reduced computational domain is presented.

• Composites Research
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.44-52
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• 2002

To study numerically the mechanical behaviors of advanced composite materials considering the microscopic phenomena as well as the macroscopic properties and behaviors, a multi-scale modeling and analysis by the mathematical homogenization method with the help of the finite element method(FEM) are reviewed. The hierarchical modeling strategy and the formulation are briefly described first to give some idea of the multi-scale framework. The latter half of this article focuses on the verification of the multi-scale analysis by the homogenization method in its applications to real advanced materials. The first example is the verification of the predicted macroscopic(homogenized) properties based on the microstructure of porous ceramics. In spite of the complexity of the random microstructure, the error between the predicted and the measured values was only 1%. Next, two applications to the process simulation of fiber reinforced polymer matrix composites are presented. The permeability characteristics are evaluated for sheared weave fabrics for resin transfer molding(RTM) simulation, and the thermoforming of FRTP sheet is analyzed considering the large deformation of the knit structure during the deep-draw forming was verified by comparison with the experimental results.