X. Wang¹, W.T. Ang^1,2, H. Fan¹

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.107, No.2, pp. 81-101, 2015, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2015.107.081

Abstract A micromechanical model is proposed here for estimating the effective stiffness of a pair of parallel microscopically damaged interfaces in a trimaterial under inplane elastostatic deformations. The trimaterial is made of an orthotropic thin layer sandwiched between two orthotropic half-spaces. The microscopically damaged interfaces are modeled using periodically distributed interfacial micro-cracks. The micromechanical model is formulated and numerically solved in terms of hypersingular boundary integro-differential equations. The effects of the width of the thin layer, the micro-crack densities of the two interfaces and the material constants of the thin layer and the two half-spaces on the effective stiffness coefficients are… More >

B.J. Yang¹, K.J. Cho¹, G.M. Kim¹, H.K. Lee^1,2

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.103, No.5, pp. 343-365, 2014, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2014.103.343

Abstract The addition of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to a matrix material is expected to lead to an increase in the effective electrical properties of nanocomposites. However, a CNT entanglement caused by the matrix viscosity and the high aspect ratio of the nanotubes often inhibits the formation of a conductive network. In the present study, the micromechanics-based model is utilized to investigate the effect of CNT agglomeration on the electrical conductivity and percolation threshold of nanocomposites. A series of parametric studies considering various shapes and curviness distributions of CNTs are carried out to examine the effects of entanglement on the electrical performance… More >

L. Rodríguez-Tembleque¹, M.H. Aliabadi²

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.102, No.3, pp. 183-210, 2014, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2014.102.183

Abstract This work presents new contact constitutive laws for friction and wear modelling in fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP). These laws are incorporated to a numerical methodology which allows us to solve the contact problem taking into account the anisotropic tribological properties on the interfaces. This formulation uses the Boundary Element Method for computing the elastic influence coefficients. Furthermore, the formulation considers micromechanical models for FRP that also makes it possible to take into account the fiber orientation relative to the sliding direction, the fiber volume fraction, the aspect ratio of fibers, or the fiber arrangement. The proposed contact and wear laws, as… More >

K.W. Luczynski¹, A. Dejaco¹, O. Lahayne¹, J. Jaroszewicz², W.Swieszkowski², C. Hellmich¹

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.87, No.6, pp. 505-529, 2012, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2012.087.505

Abstract A 71 volume-% macroporous tissue engineering scaffold made of poly-l-lactide (PLLA) with 10 mass-% of pseudo-spherical tri-calcium phosphate (TCP) inclusions (exhibiting diameters in the range of several nanometers) was microCT-scanned. The corresponding stack of images was converted into regular Finite Element (FE) models consisting of around 100,000 to 1,000,000 finite elements. Therefore, the attenuation-related, voxel-specific grey values were converted into TCP-contents, and the latter, together with nanoindentation tests,entered a homogenization scheme of the Mori-Tanaka type, as to deliver voxel-specific (and hence, finite element-specific) elastic properties. These FE models were uniaxially loaded, giving access to the macroscopic Young's modulus of the… More >

Anil Misra¹, Shiping Huang¹

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.52, No.2, pp. 197-216, 2009, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2009.052.197

Abstract The behavior of contact between solid bodies with rough surfaces under combined normal and shear loading remains a problem of interest in many areas of engineering. In this paper, we have utilized a micromechanical methodology to derive an expression of stress-displacement relationship applicable to combined normal and shear loading conditions. The micromechanical methodology considers the mechanics of asperity contacts and the interface roughness in terms of asperity height and asperity contact orientation distribution. A numerical procedure is implemented to evaluate the derived expressions under complex and mixed loading conditions using an incremental approach. We find that the proposed numerical procedure… More >

Lianhua Ma¹, Bernard F. Rolfe², Qingsheng Yang^1,3, Chunhui Yang^2,3

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.79, No.2, pp. 131-158, 2011, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2011.079.131

Abstract For fluid-filled closed cell composites widely distributed in nature, the configuration evolution and effective elastic properties are investigated using a micromechanical model and a multiscale homogenization theory, in which the effect of initial fluid pressure is considered. Based on the configuration evolution of the composite, we present a novel micromechanics model to examine the interactions between the initial fluid pressure and the macroscopic elasticity of the material. In this model, the initial fluid pressure of the closed cells and the corresponding configuration can be produced by applying an eigenstrain at the introduced fictitious stress-free configuration, and the pressure-induced initial microscopic… More >

B.Y. Lee¹, Y. Lee², J.K.Kim³, Y.Y.Kim⁴

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.61, No.2, pp. 111-132, 2010, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2010.061.111

Abstract In the present work, a micromechanics-based fiber-bridging constitutive model that quantitatively takes into consideration the distribution of fiber orientation and the number of fibers, is derived and a fiber-bridging analysis program is developed. An image processing technique is applied to evaluate the fiber distribution characteristics of four different types of strain-hardening cementitious composites. Then, the fiber-bridging curves obtained from image analysis are compared with those obtained from the assumption of two- and three-dimensional fiber distributions. The calculated ultimate tensile strains are also compared with experimental results. Test results showed that the tensile behavior of strain-hardening cementitious composites can be more… More >

S. Ullah¹, B. Pichler¹, S. Scheiner^1,2, C. Hellmich^1,3

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.57, No.3, pp. 279-316, 2010, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2010.057.279

Abstract Point-wise optical measurements of 3D displacement vectors over time are a key input for monitoring shotcrete tunnel shells during construction according to the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM). Aiming at estimation of the stresses prevailing in the highly loaded, hydrating material, we here deal with two different interpolation strategies for reconstructing, from measured displacement vectors, the 3D displacement field histories of the inner surface of the tunnel shell. The first approach considers spatial interpolation of displacement components in a fixed Cartesian base frame, while the second (new) approach refers to displacement components in a moving base frame consisting of vectors… More >

B. Yang^1,2, S.-C. Wong³, S. Qu³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.24, No.2&3, pp. 81-94, 2008, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2008.024.081

Abstract In the modeling of overall property of composites, the effect of particle interaction has been either numerically taken into account within a (representative) volume element of a small number of particles or neglected/ignored in order for efficient solution to a large system of particles. In this study, we apply the point-defect Green's function (GF) to take into account the effect of particle interaction. It is applicable to small volume fractions of particles (within 10 %). The high efficiency of the method enables a simulation of a large system of particles with generally elastic anisotropy, arbitrary shape and composition, and arbitrary… More >

Qing-Sheng Yang^1,2, Wilfried Becker³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.6, No.4, pp. 319-332, 2004, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2004.006.319

Abstract The present paper focuses on the comparative investigation of different homogenization methods for fiber composites, void solids and rigid inclusion media. The effective properties of multi-phase media are calculated by three methods, i.e. direct average method of stress and strain, direct average method of strain energy and two-scale expansion method. A comprehensive comparison, in principle and numerically, of these methods is emphasized. It is obvious that the two direct average methods are identical in principle and therefore they give the same numerical results. It is shown that the two-scale expansion method is the same as the direct average concept of… More >