Weijie Li¹, Haiming Huang^1,2, Bangcheng Ai³, Ye Tian¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.43, No.3, pp. 175-196, 2014, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2014.043.175

Abstract Physical and mathematical models are the key to analyze thermal behavior of charring materials in the thermal protection system of reentry vehicles subjected to aerodynamic heating. To explore the thermal behavior of charring ablator, we developed and compared two models (pyrolysis interface model and pyrolysis layer model) with pyrolysis and surface recession. Taking AVCOAT composites as an example, its nonlinear thermal behavior, which are caused by temperature dependent thermal properties, moving interfaces and moving boundary, were simulated using the calculation codes written respectively on the basis of the pyrolysis layer model and the pyrolysis interface model. Numerical results indicate that… More >

R. Lamloumi^1,2, L. Hassini¹, G. L. Lecomte-Nana², M. A. Elcafsi¹, D. Smith²

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.43, No.3, pp. 137-152, 2014, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2014.043.137

Abstract A mathematical model was developed to simulate in 2D the spatiotemporal evolution of the moisture content, the temperature and the mechanical stress within a deformable and saturated product during convective drying. A comprehensive hydro-thermal model had been merged with a Maxwell model with two branches, assuming a viscoelastic material, a plane deformation and an isotropic hydric-shrinkage of the sample. A long sample of clay mixture with a square section was chosen as an application case. The transport and equilibrium properties of the product required for the modeling were determined from previous experiments which were independent of the drying trials. In… More >

J. Joseph¹, Y. C. Lu ¹,

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.42, No.1, pp. 63-74, 2014, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2014.042.063

Abstract The super-long, vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (SL-VACNTs) are novel carbon nanomaterial produced from template-free synthesis. The mechanical responses of such material have been investigated by continuum finite element modeling and compared with experimental observations. The crushable foam model has been adequate in modeling the stress-strain curve and deformation of the SL-VACNTs under compression. SL-VACNTs are seen to exhibit transient elastic deformation at small displacement and then plastic deformation at large displacement. The deformation mostly occur at the position immediately beneath the compression platen (indenter face) due to the high stress/strain concentrations. 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 >

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 >

J.B. Niu¹, L.L. Li², Q. Xu¹, Z.H. Xia^1,3

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.38, No.1, pp. 31-41, 2013, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2013.038.031

Abstract Crack deflection and penetration at the interface of multi-wall carbon nanotube/amorphous carbon composites were studied via molecular dynamics simulations. In-situ strength of double-wall nanotubes bridging a matrix crack was calculated under various interfacial conditions. The structure of the nanotube reinforcement -ideal multi-wall vs. multi-wall with interwall sp³ bonding - influences the interfacial sliding and crack penetration. When the nanotube/matrix interface is strong, matrix crack penetrates the outermost layer of nanotubes but it deflects within the nanotubes with certain sp³ interwall bond density, resulting in inner wall pullout. With increasing the sp³ interwall bond density, the fracture mode becomes brittle; the… More >

J. Joseph¹, Y. C. Lu¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.37, No.1, pp. 59-75, 2013, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2013.037.059

Abstract The aligned carbon nanotube (A-CNT) structure is composed of arrays of individual CNTs grown vertically on a flat substrate. The overall structure and properties of an A-CNTs are highly dependent upon the designs of various architectures and geometric parameters. In Part 2, we have presented the detailed designs and modeling of various aligned carbon nanotube structures. It is found the A-CNT structures generally have much lower modulus than an individual CNT. The reason is due to the high porosity and low density of the A-CNT structures, since the interstitial space between nanotubes is mostly occupied by air. Increasing the nanotube… More >

J. Joseph¹, Y. C. Lu¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.37, No.1, pp. 39-57, 2013, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2013.037.039

Abstract Aligned carbon nanotubes structures are emerging new materials that have demonstrated superior mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties and have the huge potential for a wide range of applications. In contrast with traditional materials whose microstructures are relatively "fixed", the aligned carbon nanotube materials have highly "tunable" structures. Therefore, it is crucial to have a rational strategy to design and evaluate the architectures and geometric factors to help process the optimal nanotube materials. Astructural mechanics based computational modeling is used for designing the aligned carbon nanotubes structures. Part 1 of the papers presents the theory of the computational method as well… More >

Leiting Dong^1,2, Salah H. Gamal³, Satya N. Atluri^2,4

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.37, No.1, pp. 1-21, 2013, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2013.037.001

Abstract In this paper, a simple and reliable procedure of stochastic computation is combined with the highly accurate and efficient Trefftz Computational Grains (TCG), for a direct numerical simulation (DNS) of heterogeneous materials with microscopic randomness. Material properties of each material phase, and geometrical properties such as particles sizes and distribution, are considered to be stochastic with either a uniform or normal probabilistic distributions. The objective here is to determine how this microscopic randomness propagates to the macroscopic scale, and affects the stochastic characteristics of macroscopic material properties. Four steps are included in this procedure: (1) using the Latin hypercube sampling,… More >

Zichun Yang^1,2,3, Gaohui Su^1,4, Fengrui Sun¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.36, No.3, pp. 271-292, 2013, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2013.036.271

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the radiative properties and the effective thermal conductivity (ETC) of the opacified silica aerogel by theoretical method. The radiative properties of the opacified silica aerogel are obtained by the modified Mie Scattering Theory that is used for particle scattering in absorbing medium. The modified gamma distribution is used to take account of the non-uniformity of the particle size. The solid thermal conductivity of the composite material is obtained by considering the scale effect of the particles. Based on these calculated thermophysical properties the coupled heat conduction and radiation through the evacuated opacified aerogel are solved… More >