• Coupled systems mechanics
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.27-42
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• 2018

Behavior of soil is usually described with continuum type of failure models such as Mohr-Coulomb or Drucker-Prager model. The main advantage of these models is in a relatively simple and efficient way of predicting the main tendencies and overall behavior of soil in failure analysis of interest for engineering practice. However, the main shortcoming of these models is that they are not able to capture post-peak behavior of soil nor the corresponding failure modes under extreme loading. In this paper we will significantly improve on this state-of-the-art. In particular, we propose the use of a discrete beam lattice model to provide a sharp prediction of inelastic response and failure mechanisms in coupled soil-foundation systems. In the discrete beam lattice model used in this paper, soil is meshed with one-dimensional Timoshenko beam finite elements with embedded strong discontinuities in axial and transverse direction capable of representing crack propagation in mode I and mode II. Mode I relates to crack opening, and mode II relates to crack sliding. To take into account material heterogeneities, we determine fracture limits for each Timoshenko beam with Gaussian random distribution. We compare the results obtained using the discrete beam lattice model against those obtained using the modified three-surface elasto-plastic cap model.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.43-59
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• 2018

The presence of the pore fluid strongly influences the reponse of the soil subjected to external loading and in many cases increases the risk of final failure. In this paper, we propose the use of a discrete beam lattice model with the aim to investigate the coupling effects of the solid and fluid phase on the response and failure mechanisms in the saturated soil. The discrete cohesive link lattice model used in this paper, is based on inelastic Timoshenko beam finite elements with enhanced kinematics in axial and transverse direction. The coupling equations for the soil-pore fluid interaction are derived from Terzaghi's principle of effective stresses, Biot's porous media theory and Darcy's law for fluid flow through porous media. The application of the model in soil mechanics is illustrated through several numerical simulations.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.125-145
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• 2020

In this paper, we present a 3D thermo-hydro-mechanical coupled discrete beam lattice model of structure built of the nonisothermal saturated poro-plastic medium subjected to mechanical loads and nonstationary heat transfer conditions. The proposed model is based on Voronoi cell representation of the domain with cohesive links represented as inelastic Timoshenko beam finite elements enhanced with additional kinematics in terms of embedded strong discontinuities in axial and both transverse directions. The enhanced Timoshenko beam finite element is capable of modeling crack formation in mode I, mode II and mode III. Mode I relates to crack opening, mode II relates to in-plane crack sliding, and mode III relates to the out-of-plane shear sliding. The pore fluid flow and heat flow in the proposed model are governed by Darcy's law and Fourier's law for heat conduction, respectively. The pore pressure field and temperature field are approximated with linear tetrahedral finite elements. By exploiting nodal point quadrature rule for numerical integration on tetrahedral finite elements and duality property between Voronoi diagram and Delaunay tetrahedralization, the numerical implementation of the coupling results with additional pore pressure and temperature degrees of freedom placed at each node of a Timoshenko beam finite element. The results of several numerical simulations are presented and discussed.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• 제7권6호
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• pp.649-668
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• 2018

In this paper, we present a numerical model for fluid-structure interaction between structure built of porous media and acoustic fluid, which provides both pore pressure inside porous media and hydrodynamic pressures and hydrodynamic forces exerted on the upstream face of the structure in an unified manner and simplifies fluid-structure interaction problems. The first original feature of the proposed model concerns the structure built of saturated porous medium whose response is obtained with coupled discrete beam lattice model, which is based on Voronoi cell representation with cohesive links as linear elastic Timoshenko beam finite elements. The motion of the pore fluid is governed by Darcy's law, and the coupling between the solid phase and the pore fluid is introduced in the model through Biot's porous media theory. The pore pressure field is discretized with CST (Constant Strain Triangle) finite elements, which coincide with Delaunay triangles. By exploiting Hammer quadrature rule for numerical integration on CST elements, and duality property between Voronoi diagram and Delaunay triangulation, the numerical implementation of the coupling results with an additional pore pressure degree of freedom placed at each node of a Timoshenko beam finite element. The second original point of the model concerns the motion of the outside fluid which is modeled with mixed displacement/pressure based formulation. The chosen finite element representations of the structure response and the outside fluid motion ensures for the structure and fluid finite elements to be connected directly at the common nodes at the fluid-structure interface, because they share both the displacement and the pressure degrees of freedom. Numerical simulations presented in this paper show an excellent agreement between the numerically obtained results and the analytical solutions.