• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.13 no.6 s.70
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• pp.484-489
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• 2004

This paper employed a systematic analysis using a 2-D hybrid special finite element containing an edge crack in order to describe the fracture behavior of spot-welds in automotive structures. The 2-D hybrid special finite element is derived form a mixed formulation with a complex potential function with the description of the singularity of a stress field. The hybrid special finite element containing an edge crack can give a better description of its singularity with only one hybrid element surrounding one crack. The advantage of this special element is that it can greatly simplify the numerical modeling of the spot welds. Some numerical examples demonstrate the validity and versatility of the present analysis method. The lap-shear, lap-tension and angle-clip specimens are analyzed and some useful fracture parameters such as the stress intensity factor and the initial direction of crack growth are obtained simultaneously.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.85-91
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• 2022

The demand for electric vehicles has increased because of environmental regulations. The lithium-ion battery, the most widely used type of battery in electric vehicles, is composed of a cathode, an anode, and an electrolyte. It is manufactured according to the pole plate, assembly, and formation processes. To improve battery performance and increase manufacturing efficiency, the manufacturing process must be optimized. To do so, simulation can be used to reduce wasted resources and time, and a finite-element method can be utilized. For high simulation quality, it is essential to reflect the material properties of the electrode by considering the pores. However, the material properties of electrodes are difficult to derive through measurement. In this study, the representative volume element method, which is a homogenization method, was applied to estimate the representative material properties of the electrode considering the pores. The representative volume element method assumes that the strain energy before and after the conversion into a representative volume is conserved. The method can be converted into one representative property, even when nonhomogeneous materials are mixed in a unit volume. In this study, the material properties of the electrode considering the pores were derived. The results should be helpful in optimizing the electrode manufacturing process and related element technologies.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.591-604
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• 2001

In this paper, a finite element with embedded displacement discontinuity which eliminates the need for remeshing of elements in the discrete crack approach is applied for the progressive fracture analysis of concrete structures. A finite element formulation is implemented with the extension of the principle of virtual work to a continuum which contains internal displacement discontinuity. By introducing a discontinuous displacement shape function into the finite element formulation, the displacement discontinuity is obtained within an element. By applying either a nonlinear or an idealized linear softening curve representing the fracture process zone (FPZ) of concrete as a constitutive equation to the displacement discontinuity, progressive fracture analysis of concrete structures is performed. In this analysis, localized progressive fracture simultaneous with crack closure in concrete structures under mixed mode loading is simulated by adopting the unloading path in the softening curve. Several examples demonstrate the capability of the analytical technique for the progressive fracture analysis of concrete structures.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.287-309
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• 2015

FormWorks-Plus is a generalized public domain user-friendly preprocessor developed to facilitate the process of creating finite element models for structural analysis programs. The lack of a graphical user interface in most academic analysis programs forces users to input the structural model information into the standard text files, which is a time-consuming and error-prone process. FormWorks-Plus enables engineers to conveniently set up the finite element model in a graphical environment, eliminating the problems associated with conventional input text files and improving the user's perception of the application. In this paper, a brief overview of the FormWorks-Plus structure is presented, followed by a detailed explanation of the main features of the program. In addition, demonstration is made of the application of FormWorks-Plus in combination with VecTor programs, advanced nonlinear analysis tools for reinforced concrete structures. Finally, aspects relating to the modelling and analysis of three case studies are discussed: a reinforced concrete beam-column joint, a steel-concrete composite shear wall, and a SFRC shear panel. The unique mixed-type frame-membrane modelling procedure implemented in FormWorks-Plus can address the limitations associated with most frame type analyses.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.283-299
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• 2010

This paper addresses the numerical simulation of fatigue crack growth in arbitrary 2D geometries under constant amplitude loading by the using a new finite element software. The purpose of this software is on the determination of 2D crack paths and surfaces as well as on the evaluation of components Lifetimes as a part of the damage tolerant assessment. Throughout the simulation of fatigue crack propagation an automatic adaptive mesh is carried out in the vicinity of the crack front nodes and in the elements which represent the higher stresses distribution. The fatigue crack direction and the corresponding stress-intensity factors are estimated at each small crack increment by employing the displacement extrapolation technique under facilitation of singular crack tip elements. The propagation is modeled by successive linear extensions, which are determined by the stress intensity factors under linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) assumption. The stress intensity factors range history must be recorded along the small crack increments. Upon completion of the stress intensity factors range history recording, fatigue crack propagation life of the examined specimen is predicted. A consistent transfer algorithm and a crack relaxation method are proposed and implemented for this purpose. Verification of the predicted fatigue life is validated with relevant experimental data and numerical results obtained by other researchers. The comparisons show that the program is capable of demonstrating the fatigue life prediction results as well as the fatigue crack path satisfactorily.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.5
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• pp.633-642
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• 2020

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are known as intelligent methods for modeling the behavior of physical phenomena because of it is a soft computing technique and takes data samples rather than entire data sets to arrive at solutions, which saves both time and money. ANN is successfully used in the civil engineering applications which are suitable examining the complicated relations between variables. Functionally graded materials (FGMs) are advanced composites that successfully used in various engineering design. The FGMs are nonhomogeneous materials and made of two different type of materials. In the present study, the bending analysis of functionally graded material (FGM) beams presents on theoretical based on combination of mixed-finite element method, Gâteaux differential and Timoshenko beam theory. The main idea in this study is to build a model using ANN with four parameters that are: Young's modulus ratio (E_t/E_b), a shear correction factor (k_s), power-law exponent (n) and length to thickness ratio (L/h). The output data is the maximum displacement (w). In the experiments: 252 different data are used. The proposed ANN model is evaluated by the correlation of the coefficient (R), MAE and MSE statistical methods. The ANN model is very good and the maximum displacement can be predicted in ANN without attempting any experiments.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.291-306
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• 2021

Based on Reissner's mixed variational theorem (RMVT), the authors develop a semi-analytical finite element (FE) method for a three-dimensional (3D) bending analysis of nonhomogeneous orthotropic, complete and incomplete toroidal shells subjected to uniformly-distributed loads. In this formulation, the toroidal shell is divided into several finite annular prisms (FAPs) with quadrilateral cross-sections, where trigonometric functions and serendipity polynomials are used to interpolate the circumferential direction and meridian-radial surface variations in the primary field variables of each individual prism, respectively. The material properties of the toroidal shell are considered to be nonhomogeneous orthotropic over the meridianradial surface, such that homogeneous isotropic toroidal shells, laminated cross-ply toroidal shells, and single- and bi-directional functionally graded toroidal shells can be included as special cases in this work. Implementation of the current FAP methods shows that their solutions converge rapidly, and the convergent FAP solutions closely agree with the 3D elasticity solutions available in the literature.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.257-266
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• 1999

This paper presents a method of seismic analysis for a cylindrical liquid storage structure on/in horizontally layered half.space considering the effects of the interior fluid and exterior soil medium in the frequency domain. To capture the essence of fluid-structure-soil interaction effects effectively, a mixed finite element with two-field (u, p) approximation is employed to model the compressive inviscid fluid, while the structure and soil medium are presented by the 3-D axisymmetric finite elements and dynamic infinite elements. The present FE-based method can be applied to the system with complex geometry of fluid region as well as with inhomogeneous near-field soil medium, since it can directly model both the fluid and the soil. For the purpose of verification, dominant peak frequencies in transfer functions for horizontal motions of cylindrical fluid storage tanks with rigid massless foundation on a homogeneous viscoelastic half.space are compared with those by two different added mass approaches for the fluid motion. The comparison indicates that the Present FE-based methodology gives accurate solution for the fluid-structure-soil interaction problem. Finally, as a demonstration of versatility of the present study, a seismic analysis for a real-scale LNG storage tank embedded in layered half.space is carried out, and its member forces along the height of the structure are compared with those by an added mass approach developed by the present writers.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.549-560
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• 2021

Forces exerted on a shield TBM (tunnel boring machine) such as cutter head torque, thrust force, chamber pressure, and upward force are key factors determining TBM performance. However, the forces acting on the TBM when tunnelling the mixed ground have different tendencies compared to that of the uniform ground, which could impair TBM performance. In this study, the effect of mixed ground tunnelling was numerically investigated with torque, thrust force, chamber pressure, and upward force. A coupled discrete element method (DEM) and finite difference method (FDM) model for TBM driving model was used. This numerical study simulates TBM tunnelling in mixed ground composed of upper weathered granite soil and lower weathered rock. The effect on the force acting on the TBM according to the location and slope of the boundary of the mixed ground was numerically examined.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.1043-1066
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• 2016

A new analytical solution based on a third order shear deformation theory for the problem of static analysis of cross-ply doubly-curved shells is presented. The boundary-discontinuous generalized double Fourier series method is used to solve highly coupled linear partial differential equations with the mixed type simply supported boundary conditions prescribed on the edges. The complementary boundary constraints are introduced through boundary discontinuities generated by the selected boundary conditions for the derivation of the complementary solution. The numerical accuracy of the solution is compared by studying the comparisons of deflections, stresses and moments of symmetric and anti-symmetric laminated shells with finite element results using commercially available software under uniformly distributed load. Results are in good agreement with finite element counterparts. Additional results of the symmetric and anti-symmetric laminated and sandwich shells under single point load at the center and pressure load, are presented to provide data for the unsolved boundary conditions, benchmark comparisons and verifications.