Anna Y. Matveeva¹, Helmut J. Böhm², Grygoriy Kravchenko², Ferrie W. J. van Hattum¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.42, No.1, pp. 1-23, 2014, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2014.042.001

Abstract This paper presents a comparison of different finite element approaches to modelling polymers reinforced with wavy, hollow fibres with the aim of predicting the effective elastic stiffness tensors of the composites. The waviness of the tubes is described by sinusoidal models with different amplitude-to-wavelength parameters. These volume elements are discretized by structured volume meshes onto which fibres in the form of independently meshed beam, shell or volume elements are superimposed. An embedded element technique is used to link the two sets of meshes. Reference solutions are obtained from conventional three-dimensional volume models of the same phase arrangements. Periodicity boundary conditions… More >

Yuvaraj P¹, A Ramachra Murthy², Nagesh R Iyer³, S.K. Sekar⁴, Pijush Samui⁵

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.41, No.3, pp. 193-214, 2014, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2014.041.193

Abstract This paper presents fracture mechanics based Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model to predict the fracture characteristics of high strength and ultra high strength concrete beams. Fracture characteristics include fracture energy (Gf), critical stress intensity factor (KIC) and critical crack tip opening displacement (CTODc). Failure load of the beam (Pmax) is also predicated by using ANN model. Characterization of mix and testing of beams of high strength and ultra strength concrete have been described. Methodologies for evaluation of fracture energy, critical stress intensity factor and critical crack tip opening displacement have been outlined. Back-propagation training technique has been employed for updating… More >

H. Zheng^1,2, X. Peng^1,2,3,4, N. Hu^1,3,5

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.41, No.1, pp. 55-84, 2014, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2014.041.055

Abstract The Shakedown of a functionally graded (FG) Bree plate subjected to coupled constant mechanical loading and cyclically varying temperature is analyzed with more accurate approaches and optimized with the genetic algorithm method. The shakedown theorem takes into account material hardening. The variation of the material properties in the thickness of a FG Bree plate is characterized with a piecewise exponential distribution, which can replicate the actual distribution with sufficient accuracy. In order to obtain the best distribution of the mechanical properties in the FG plate, the distribution of the reinforcement particle volume fraction is optimized with the genetic algorithm (GA).… More >

Qiubao Ouyang¹, Di Zhang^1,2, Xinhai Zhu³, Zhidong Han³

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.41, No.1, pp. 37-54, 2014, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2014.041.037

Abstract The present work is to investigate the failure mechanisms in the deformation of silicon carbide (SiC) particle reinforced aluminum Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs). To better deal with crack growth, a new numerical approach: the MLPG-Eshelby Method is used. This approach is based on the meshless local weak-forms of the Noether/Eshelby Energy Conservation Laws and it achieves a faster convergent rate and is of good accuracy. In addition, it is much easier for this method to allow material to separate in the material fracture processes, comparing to the conventional popular FEM based method. Based on a statistical method and physical observations,… More >

Xue-Qian Fang^1,2, Hong-Wei Liu¹, Yong-Mao Zhao¹, Guo-Quan Nie^1,1 and Jin-Xi Liu¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.40, No.2, pp. 145-164, 2014, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2014.040.145

Abstract Electro-elastic surface/interface around nano-sized piezoelectric inclusions shows great effect on the response of piezoelectric nano-structures. In this paper, a theoretical model is proposed to examine the surface/interface effect on the electromechanical responses around a nano-sized elliptical piezoelectric inclusion embedded in an infinite piezoelectric matrix under far-field loading with an arbitrary angle, and the effect of loading angle is considered Combining the conformal mapping technique and electro-elastic surface/interface theory, a closed form solution of this problem is obtained and the interactive effect between the surface/interface and the aspect ratio of the elliptical inclusion is examined. More >

Trenton M. Ricks¹, Thomas E. Lacy, Jr.^1,2, Brett A. Bednarcyk³, Steven M.Arnold³, John W. Hutchins¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.40, No.2, pp. 99-130, 2014, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2014.040.099

Abstract A multiscale modeling methodology was developed for continuous fiber composites that incorporates a statistical distribution of fiber strengths into coupled multiscale micromechanics/ finite element (FE) analyses. A modified twoparameter Weibull cumulative distribution function, which accounts for the effect of fiber length on the probability of failure, was used to characterize the statistical distribution of fiber strengths. A parametric study using the NASA Micromechanics Analysis Code with the Generalized Method of Cells (MAC/GMC) was performed to assess the effect of variable fiber strengths on local composite failure within a repeating unit cell (RUC) and subsequent global failure. The NASA code FEAMAC… More >

Y. L. Liu¹, N. Hu², H. Xu³, H. Ning¹, L. K. Wu¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.40, No.1, pp. 1-20, 2014, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2014.040.001

Abstract A real-time monitoring technique for local plasticity using Lamb waves was developed. Tensile test of a thin aluminum plate with a circular hole where high stress concentration was induced was conducted to verify this technique. During the tensile test, a series of wave signals passing through the local plastic region were collected using a directional actuator/sensor set to monitor plasticity evolution. A pulse compression technique was used to process the wave signals. With the increase of tensile stress in the specimen, the amplitude changes of S₀ and A₀ modes were obtained and the difference of Lamb wave signals was further… More >

Cherl-Hee Lee, Jonghun Lee¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.39, No.3, pp. 289-299, 2014, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2014.039.289

Abstract The broadband design of a metamaterials-based zeroth-order resonance (ZOR) mushroom antenna with an I-shaped slit is presented and experimentally studied. The presented metamaterials-based antenna uses a unit cell based on a composite right/left handed (CRLH) transmission line and can provide a ZOR frequency. By designing the I-shaped slot resonance frequency adjacently to the ZOR frequency, the presented antenna can achieve a 10-dB bandwidth enhancement of roughly 7 times with respect to a conventional rectangular-shaped mushroom structure. More >

A.I. Dimitriadis¹, N.V. Kantartzis¹ and T.D. Tsiboukis¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.39, No.3, pp. 231-265, 2014, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2014.039.231

Abstract The most important surface susceptibility models for the electromagnetic characterization of periodic metafilms, based on the dipole approximation method, are systematically analyzed in this paper. Specifically, two well-known techniques, which lead to a set of local effective surface parameters, are investigated along with a new dynamic non-local modeling algorithm. The latter formulation is properly expanded, in order to be applicable for any arbitrary periodic metafilm, irrespective of its way of excitation. The featured schemes are then directly compared toward their ability to efficiently predict the reflection and transmission properties of several lossless and lossy metafilms. Their outcomes are carefully verified… More >

X.P. Shen^1,2, X.C. Wang¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.39, No.2, pp. 135-152, 2014, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2014.039.135

Abstract Emphases of this study were placed on the modelling of plastic damage behaviour of prestressed structural concrete, with special attention being paid to the stress-triaxiality dependent plastic hardening law and the corresponding damage evolution law. A definition of stress triaxiality was proposed and introduced in the model presented here. Drucker-Prager -type plasticity was adopted in the formulation of the plastic damage constitutive equations. Numerical validations were performed for the proposed plasticity-based damage model with a driver subroutine developed in this study. The predicted stress-strain behaviour seems reasonably accurate for the uniaxial tension and uniaxial compression compared with the experimental data… More >