• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.12
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• pp.4504-4517
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• 2023

After a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) in the prestressed concrete containment vessels (PCCVs) of nuclear power plants, the coupling of temperature and pressure can significantly affect the mechanical properties of the PCCVs. However, there is no consensus on how this coupling affects the failure mechanism of PCCVs. In this paper, a simplified finite element modeling method is proposed to study the effect of temperature and pressure coupling on PCCVs. The experiment results of a 1:4 scale PCCV model tested at Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) are compared with the results obtained from the proposed modeling approach. Seven working conditions are set up by varying the internal and external temperatures to investigate the failure mechanism of the PCCV model under the coupling effect of temperature and pressure. The results of this paper demonstrate that the finite element model established by the simplified finite element method proposed in this paper is highly consistent with the experimental results. Furthermore, the stress-displacement curve of the PCCV during loading can be divided into four stages, each of which corresponds to the damage to the concrete, steel liner, steel rebar, and prestressing tendon. Finally, the failure mechanism of the PCCV is significantly affected by temperature.

• Journal of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.45-65
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• 2002

A constitutive model on oorthotropic thermo-elasto-viscoplasticity for fiber-reinforced composite materials Is illustrated, and their thermomechanical responses are predicted with the fully-coupled finite element formulation. The unmixing-mixing scheme can be adopted with the multipartite matrix method as the constitutive model. Basic assumptions based upon the composite micromechanics are postulated, and the strain components of thermal expansion due to temperature change are included In the formulation. Also. more than two sets of mechanical variables, which represent the deformation states of multipartite matrix can be introduced arbitrarily. In particular, the unmixing-mixing scheme can be used with any well-known isotropic viscoplastic theory of the matrix material. The scheme unnecessitates the complex processes for developing an orthotropic viscoplastic theory. The governing equations based on fully-coupled thermomechanics are derived with constitutive arrangement by the unmixing-mixing concept. By considering some auxiliary conditions, the Initial-boundary value problem Is completely set up. As a tool of numerical analyses, the finite element method Is used with isoparametric Interpolation fer the displacement and the temperature fields. The equation of mutton and the energy conservation equation are spatially discretized, and then the time marching techniques such as the Newmark method and the Crank-Nicolson technique are applied. To solve the ultimate nonlinear simultaneous equations, a successive iteration algorithm is constructed with subincrementing technique. As a numerical study, a series of analyses are performed with the main focus on the thermomechanical coupling effect in composite materials. The progress of viscoplastic deformation, the stress-strain relation, and the temperature History are careful1y examined when composite laminates are subjected to repeated cyclic loading.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-25
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• 2014

In this work, we present the theoretical formulation, operator split solution procedure and partitioned software development for the coupled thermomechanical systems. We consider the general case with nonlinear evolution for each sub-system (either mechanical or thermal) with dedicated time integration scheme for each sub-system. We provide the condition that guarantees the stability of such an operator split solution procedure for fully nonlinear evolution of coupled thermomechanical system. We show that the proposed solution procedure can accommodate different evolution time-scale for different sub-systems, and allow for different time steps for the corresponding integration scheme. We also show that such an approach is perfectly suitable for parallel computations. Several numerical simulations are presented in order to illustrate very satisfying performance of the proposed solution procedure and confirm the theoretical speed-up of parallel computations, which follow from the adequate choice of the time step for each sub-problem. This work confirms that one can make the most appropriate selection of the time step with respect to the characteristic time-scale, carry out the separate computations for each sub-system, and then enforce the coupling to preserve the stability of the operator split computations. The software development strategy of direct linking the (existing) codes for each sub-system via Component Template Library (CTL) is shown to be perfectly suitable for the proposed approach.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.349-374
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• 2013

In this work we propose a novel procedure for direct computation of buckling loads for extreme mechanical or thermomechanical conditions. The procedure efficiency is built upon the von Karmann strain measure providing the special format of the tangent stiffness matrix, leading to a general linear eigenvalue problem for critical load multiplier estimates. The proposal is illustrated on a number of validation examples, along with more complex examples of interest for practical applications. The comparison is also made against a more complex computational procedure based upon the finite strain elasticity, as well as against a more refined model using the frame elements. All these results confirm a very satisfying performance of the proposed methodology.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.7-14
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• 2005

A subdomain-interface finite element method is suggested to solve a class of fully- coupled thermomechanical problems with contact boundaries. The penalty method is used for connecting subdomains that satisfy interface compatibility conditions. As a result, effective stiffness matrices are always positive definite, and computational efficiency can be improved to a considerable degree. Moreover, any complex-shaped domain can be divided into independently modeled subdomains without considering the conformity of meshes on interfaces. Using a computer code based on the present method, these advantageous features are shown through a set of numerical studies.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.129-134
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• 2010

The influence of the strain-rate on the thermomechanical characteristics of shape memory alloys (SMAs) is numerically investigated. The three-dimensional SMA constitutive equations of strain-rate effect is developed. The strain-rate effect is taken into account by introducing a coupling equation between the production rate of martensite and the temperature change. For the numerical results, the SMA algorithm is implemented into the ABAQUS finite element program. Numerical simulation shows that the pseudoelasticity of SMA may significantly be changed by considering the strain-rate due to the temperature change.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.597-604
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• 2013

A coupled thermomechanical analysis of composite structures in pyrolysis and ablation environments is performed. The pyrolysis and ablation models include the effects of mass loss, pore gas diffusion, endothermic reaction energy, surface recession, etc. The thermal and structural analysis interface is based upon a staggered coupling algorithm by using a commercial finite element code. The characteristics of the proposed method are investigated through numerical experiments with carbon/phenolic composites. The numerical studies are carried out to examine the surface recession rate by chemical and mechanical ablation. In addition, the effects of shrinkage or intumescence during the pyrolysis process are shown.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.68-74
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• 2017

Epoxy resins are widely used in various fields due to their excellent thermal, mechanical and chemical properties. In order to improve the mechanical properties of the epoxy composition after curing, various materials are mixed in the epoxy resin. Among the nano materials, CNT is the most widely used. However, CNT has limitations in terms of manufacturing process and manufacturing cost. Therefore, there is a growing interest in naturally occurring HNTs having similar structure to that of CNT. In this study, the thermal and mechanical properties of epoxy compositions containing HNTs treated with two types of silane compounds were investigated. The mechanical properties of silane-treated HNT were measured by using a universal testing machine. The differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and thermomechanical analysis (TMA) were used to measure thermal properties. As a result of the above tests, when the HNT was surface-treated with aminosilane, the tensile strength of the epoxy composition containing the HNT was higher than that of the epoxy composition containing epoxy silane treated HNT. The linear thermal expansion coefficients (CTE) obtained from the thermomechanical analysis of the two epoxy compositions for the comparison of dimensional stability showed that the HNT composition treated with aminosilane showed a lower value of CTE than that of epoxy composition including the pristine HNT.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.41-51
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• 1991

The thermomechanical coupling phenomena in the resistance welding process is complicated due to interactions of mechanical, thermal and electrical factors. Although experimental investigations of resistance spot welding have been carried out, but there are a few by computer simulation. so the purpose of this research is to decrease the time and cost much required in experimental investigation by carrying out the analysis of the resistance spot welding process through computer simulation based on the finite element method. The tool used in the computer simulation is the commercial ANSYS program package. A two dimensional axisymetric model is used to simulate the resistance spot welding for two stainless steel sheets of equal thickness and parametric study is carried out for variable welding current, workpieces of unequal thickness and dissimilar materials. The results from the computer simulation are in good agreement with the experimental one. Through these results, such items as stress distribution, temperature profiles, thermal expansion and weld nugget formation are predicted. Reliability and applicability of finite element models have been demonstrated to simulate and to analyze the resistance spot welding process.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.396-401
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• 2008

The disc-pad brake system is an important part of automobile safety system. During braking, the kinetic energy and potential energies of a moving vehicle are converted into the thermal energy through frictional heat between the brake disc and the pads. Most of the thermal energy dissipated through the brake disc. The temperature could be exceed the critical value for a given material, which leads to undesirable effects, such as the brake fade, premature wear, brake fluid vaporization, bearing failure, thermal cracks, and thermallyexcited vibration. The object of the present study is to investigate temperature field and temperature variation of brake disc and pad during single brake. The brake disc is decelerated at the initial speed with constant acceleration, until the disc comes to stop. The pad-disc brake assembly is built by 3D model with the appropriate boundary condition. In the simulation process, the mechanical loads are applied to the thermomechanical coupling analysis in order to simulate the process of heat produced by friction.