Standard-compliant measurement of the in-plane fracture toughness of metals is often challenging due to insufficient material in the through-thickness direction to extract a full single edge bending (SEB) or compact tension (CT) fracture specimen. In the present work, we propose a new specimen design methodology to overcome this challenge. A W-shaped SEB specimen (called W-SEB) was developed, and its topology was optimized using finite element simulations. The new specimen design was validated numerically and experimentally on a case study showing excellent agreement with standard ASTM E1820 actual SEB specimen geometry. In view assessing the anisotropy of the fracture toughness (K Q and crack tip opening displacement (CTOD)) of pipeline steels susceptible to hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC), the W-SEB specimen was tested on X65 and X42 pipeline steel samples taken from the field. Experimental results show an increase in the maximum CTOD along the in-plane direction as compared to the transverse direction for both steel grades. Such experimental results could lead to important considerations with respect to accurate fitness for service assessment of HIC-damaged assets.

Homogenization heat treatment is performed to attain uniformity in microstructure which is helpful to achieve the desired workability and microstructure in final products and, eventually, to gain predictive and consistent performance. Fabrication of low-enriched uranium alloys with 10 wt% molybdenum (U-10Mo) fuel plates involves multiple thermomechanical processing steps. It is well known that the molybdenum homogeneity in the final formed product affects the performance in the nuclear reactor. To ensure uniform homogenization, a statistical method is proposed to quantify and characterize the molybdenum concentration variation in U-10Mo fuel plates by analyzing the molybdenum concentration measurement data from scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive spectroscopy line-scan. Statistical tolerance intervals (TI) are employed to determine the qualification of the U-10Mo fuel plate. We formulate an argument for the minimum number of independent samples to define fuel plate qualification if no molybdenum measurement data are available in advance and demonstrate that the given TI requirements can be equivalently reduced to a sample variance criterion in this application. The outcome of the statistical analysis can be used to optimize casting design and eventually increase productivity and reduce fabrication costs. The statistical strategy developed in this paper can be implemented for other applications especially in the field of material manufacturing to assess qualification requirements and monitor and improve the process design.

The present study addresses the integration of an analytical uncertainty quantification approach to multi-scale modeling of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT)-epoxy nanocomposites. The main highlight is the investigation of the stochasticity of nanotube orientations, and its effects on the homogenized properties. Even though the properties of SWNT-epoxy nanocomposites are well-studied in the literature, the natural stochasticity that arises from the nanotube orientations has not been observed. To understand the effects of the variability in SWNT orientations to material properties of interest, an analytical uncertainty quantification algorithm is utilized. The analytical scheme computes the propagation of the orientational uncertainty to the volume-averaged properties with a linear solution and uses the transformation of random variables principle to obtain the variations in non-linear properties. The results indicate that the uncertainty propagation affects the macro-scale properties, including stiffness, thermal expansion, thermal conductivity, and natural frequencies.

In this study, the effects of temperature, stress, and type of materials and their interactions on the creep rate and rupture time were investigated by using central composite design (CCD). An experimental plan for CCD with two numerical factors, one categorical factor, and two levels was used to optimize the required number of experiments. Temperatures of 800 and 900 °C and stresses of 250 and 450 MPa were selected as factors for GTD-111 and IN-738LC superalloys, respectively. Experimental and numerical results showed that the main effects of factors and their interactions are significant on the creep rate and rupture time. Among all factors, the effects of temperature and stress dominated other factors. Moreover, it was indicated that the combination between temperature and stress is much more effective on creep rate response than on rupture time. The high creep rate and the low rupture time values were obtained at the highest stress and temperature for IN-738LC. With the same experimental condition, creep rate values were the most and rupture time values were the least for IN-738LC in comparison with GTD-111.

Much research has been conducted on effective elastic properties of meso-scaled periodic cellular material (MPCM) structures; however, there is only limited research providing guidelines on how to develop improved unit cell (UC) topologies and shapes for a given set of loading requirements and conditions. This paper presents guidelines to improve the shear flexibility of the MPCMs while maintaining the effective shear modules by changing the topology or the shape of a unit cell. The guidelines are intended to use design knowledge for helping engineers by providing recommendations at any stage of the design process. In this paper, the guidelines are developed by changing topology characteristics to achieve a desired effective property of the MPCM structure. The effects of individual members, such as side connection, transverse connection, vertical legs, and curved beams of MPCM structure, when subjected to the in-plane shear loading are investigated through conducting a set of numerical simulation on UCs with similar topology and shape characteristics. Based on the simulation results, the unit cell design guidelines are developed to provide recommendations to engineers on improving the shear flexure of MPCM during the design process. Ultimately, a unit cell design guideline development method is offered and demonstrated by developing two new design guidelines.

Cellular architectures are promising in a variety of engineering applications due to attractive material properties. Additive manufacturing has reduced the difficulty in the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) cellular materials. In this paper, the numerical homogenization method for 3D cellular materials is provided based on a short, self-contained matlab code. It is an educational description that shows how the homogenized constitutive matrix is computed by a voxel model with one material to be void and another material to be solid. A voxel generation algorithm is proposed to generate the voxel model easily by the wireframe scripts of unit cell topologies. The format of the wireframe script is defined so that the topology can be customized. The homogenization code is then extended to multimaterial cellular structures and thermal conductivity problems. The result of the numerical homogenization shows that different topologies exhibit anisotropic elastic properties to a different extent. It is also found that the anisotropy of cellular materials can be controlled by adjusting the combination of materials.

Mechanical properties of additive manufactured metal components can be affected by the orientation of the layer deposition. In this investigation, Ti–6Al–4V cylindrical specimens were fabricated by electron beam melting (EBM) at four different build angles (0 deg, 30 deg, 60 deg, and 90 deg) and tested as per ASTM E8 Standard Test Methods for Tension Testing of Metallic Materials. With the layer-by-layer fabrication suggesting granting anisotropic properties to the builds, strain fields were recorded by digital image correlation (DIC) in the search for shear effects under uniaxial loads. For the validation of this measuring method, axial strains were measured with a clip extensometer and a virtual extensometer, simultaneously. Failure analysis of the specimens at different orientations was conducted to evidence the recording of shear strain fields. The failure analysis included fractography, optical micrographs of the microstructure distribution, and failure profiles displaying different failure features associated with the layering orientation. Additionally, an experimental study case of how the failure mode of components can potentially be designed from the fabrication process is presented. At the end, remarks about the shear effects found, and an insight of the possibility of designing components by failure for safer structures are discussed.

Recent studies on developing dual phase (DP) steels showed that the combination of strength/ductility could be significantly improved when changing the volume fraction and grain size of phases in the microstructure depending on microstructure properties. Consequently, DP steel manufacturers are interested in predicting microstructure properties as well as optimizing microstructure design at different strain rate conditions. In this work, a microstructure-based approach using a multiscale material and structure model was developed. The approach examined the mechanical behavior of DP steels using virtual tensile tests with a full micro-macro multiscale material model to identify specific mechanical properties. Microstructures with varied ferrite grain sizes, martensite volume fractions, and carbon content in DP steels were also studied. The influence of these microscopic parameters at different strain rates on the mechanical properties of DP steels was examined numerically using a full micro-macro multiscale finite element method. An elasto-viscoplastic constitutive model and a response surface methodology (RSM) were used to determine the optimum microstructure parameters for a required combination of strength/ductility at different strain rates. The results from the numerical simulations were compared with experimental results found in the literature. The developed methodology proved to be a powerful tool for studying the effect and interaction of key strain rate sensitivity and microstructure parameters on mechanical behavior and thus can be used to identify optimum microstructural conditions at different strain rates.

Adding programmable function to elastic metamaterials makes them versatile and intelligent. The objective of this study is to design and demonstrate thermomechanically tunable metamaterials with a compliant porous structure (CPS) and to analyze their thermomechanical behaviors. CPS, the unit cell of the metamaterial, is composed of rectangular holes, slits, and bimaterial hinges. By decomposing kinematic rotation of a linked arm and elastic deformation of a bimaterial hinge, a thermomechanical constitutive model of CPS is constructed, and the constitutive model is extended to a three-dimensional (3D) polyhedron structure for securing isotropic thermal properties. Temperature-dependent properties of base materials are implemented to the analytical model. The analytical model is verified with finite element (FE) based numerical simulations. A controllable range of temperature and strain is identified that is associated with a thermal deformation of the bimaterial hinge and contact on the slit surfaces of CPS. We also investigate the effect of geometry of CPS on the thermal expansion and effective stiffness of the metamaterial. The metamaterial with CPS has multiple transformation modes in response to temperature while keeping the same mechanical properties at room temperature, such as effective moduli and Poisson’s ratios. This work will pave the road toward the design of programmable metamaterials with both mechanically and thermally tunable capability, providing unique thermomechanical properties with a programmable function.

The aim of this work is to design a lightweight, creep-resistant blade for an axial single-stage micro-gas turbine. The selected process was casting of an intermetallic titanium/aluminum alloy. All the project phases are described, from the preliminary thermodynamic and geometric stage design, to its three-dimensional (3D) modeling and the subsequent finite element method–computational fluid dynamics (FEM-CFD) analysis, to the manufacturing process of the single rotor blade. The blade making (height 7 cm and chord 5 cm, approximately) consisted in a prototyping phase in which a fully 3D version was realized by means of fused deposition modeling and then in the actual production of a full-scale set of blades by investment casting in an induction furnace. The produced items showed acceptable characteristics in terms of shape and soundness. Metallographic investigations and preliminary mechanical tests were performed on the blade specimens. The geometry was then refined by a CFD study, and a slightly modified shape was obtained whose final testing under operative conditions is though left for a later study. This paper describes the spec-to-final product procedure and discusses some critical aspects of this manufacturing process, such as the considerable reactivity between the molten metal and the mold material, the resistance of the ceramic shell to the molten metal impact at high temperatures, and the maximal acceptable mold porosity for the specified surface finish. The CFD results that led to the modification of the original commercial shape are also discussed, and a preliminary performance assessment of the turbine stage is presented and discussed.

As a clean energy technology, the development of electric vehicles (EVs) is challenged by lightweight design, battery safety, and range. In this study, our simulations indicate that using a flexible structure of battery module has the potential to overcome the limitations in battery-powered EVs, contributing to a new design. Specifically, we focus on optimizing the structure of vehicle battery packs, aiming to improve the crashworthiness of EVs through frontal crash simulations. In addition, by considering battery packs as energy-absorption components, it is found that occupant compartment acceleration (OCA) is greatly reduced at an optimal working pressure of 4 MPa for battery module.

We develop a framework for wave tailoring by altering the lattice network topology of a granular crystal consisting of spherical granules in contact. The lattice topology can alternate between two stable configurations, with the spherical granules of the lattice held in stable equilibrium in each configuration by gravity. Under impact, the first configuration results in a wave with rapidly decaying amplitude as it propagates along a primary chain, while the second configuration results in a solitary wave propagating along the primary chain with no decay. The mechanism to achieve such tunability is by having energy diverted to the granules adjacent to the primary chain in the first case but not the second. The tunable design of the proposed network is validated using both numerical simulations and experiments. In terms of potential applications, the proposed bistable lattice network can be viewed either as a wave attenuator or as a device that allows higher amplitude wave propagation in one direction than in the opposite direction. The lattice is analogous to a crystal phase transformation due to the change in atomic configurations, leading to the change in properties at the macroscale.

The objective of this work is to develop a multiscale modeling tool of copolymers with long chains. We propose an enhanced coarse-graining method of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) with three beads. The proposed coarse-graining provides an accurate molecular modeling tool to keep the molecular interaction together with computational efficiency. The coarse-grained model with three beads is further improved with pressure-correction of the force-field. The improved coarse-grained model holds similar properties of a bulk model of TPU—varying density with temperature, a close density value of TPU at 1 atm, and the phase separation. Equating potential energy densities of the coarse-grained model to the strain energy functions of the continuum model at volumetric and isochoric deformation modes, bulk and shear moduli of TPU are directly obtained and used to estimate Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio. The molecular simulation with the coarse-grained model of TPU demonstrates its much greater bulk modulus than the shear modulus, which is typically observed in elastomers. Modifying the coarse-grained model of TPU with hard and soft segments, we successfully demonstrated the material design of bulk modulus and Poisson's ratio by varying hard and soft segments at the molecular level. The proposed coarse-graining tool will pave a new way to explore the multiscale modeling of copolymers with long chains and can be directly applied to the multiscale modeling of other thermoplastic elastomers (TPE).

Design of high-performance power lines with advanced materials is indispensable to effectively eliminate losses in electrical power transmission and distribution (T&D) lines. In this study, aluminum conductor composite core with carbon nanostructure (ACCC–CNS) coating in a multilayered architecture is considered as a novel design alternative to conventional aluminum conductor steel-reinforced (ACSR) transmission line. In the multiphysics approach presented herein, first, electrothermal finite element analysis (FEA) of the ACSR line is performed to obtain its steady-state temperature for a given current. Subsequently, the sag of the ACSR line due to self-weight and thermal expansion is determined by performing thermostructural analysis employing an analytical model. The results are then verified with those obtained from the FEA of the ACSR line. The electrothermal finite element (FE) model and the thermostructural analytical model are then extended to the ACCC–CNS line. The results indicate that the ACCC–CNS line has higher current-carrying capacity (CCC) and lower sag compared to those of the ACSR line. Motivated by the improved performance of the ACCC–CNS line, a systematic parametric study is conducted in order to determine the optimum ampacity, core diameter, and span length. The findings of this study would provide insights into the optimal design of high-performance overhead power lines.

This study was conducted to investigate the stress, strain, and strength ratio distributions in the composite flywheel rotor for high-energy density storage applications. Symmetric laminate design was used to avoid shear and extension–bending coupling and to minimize torsion coupling. The rotor studied consists of four anisotropic unidirectional plies. The continuity conditions of the radial stresses and displacements between plies were used to obtain a local stiffness matrix for each ply and develop the global stiffness matrix for the rotor due to the different ply orientations. The Tsai–Wu three-dimensional (3D) quadratic failure criterion in stress space was used to evaluate the strength ratio of the rings. Analysis was done for ply orientations between [±5 deg] S and [±85 deg] S . Three specific ply orientations were reported for discussion. The results show how the stress, strain, and safe rotational speed of the flywheel change as the ply orientations are varied. The circumferential stress was found to be the dominant stress. It increases as the ply angle increased in the circumferential direction while the axial stress decreased. Due to significant improvements in composite materials and technology, the results from this study will contribute to further development of the flywheel which has recently re-emerged as a promising application for energy storage.

The contemporary approach of utilizing uniaxial tests data for prediction of failure in composite materials, that are anisotropic and inhomogeneous under multi-axial loading has witnessed to be inadequate. Consequently, biaxial and multi-axial tests appeared obligatory to enhance our perceptive about the performance of these complex materials. The present paper is focused on selection of suitable geometry for the test coupons required under biaxial loading. The specimen with (1) uniform stress about the gauge section, (2) failure in the gauge section, and (3) preventing the undesired nonuniform strain distribution due to stress concentration is selected. Finite element analysis (FEA) is implemented on the cross shape (╬) specimen with different undercuts and holes with different stress ratios ranging from ( σ x : σ y ) = 1:1, 1:0.5, 1:0.75, 1:−0.25, 1:−0.5, and 1:−0.75 are applied on the four edges of the specimen for selection of suitable geometry.

The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of yield strength of the filler material and weld metal penetration on the load carrying capacity of butt welded joints in high-strength steels (HSS) (i.e., grade S700 and S960). These joints are manufactured with three different filler materials (under-matching, matching, and over-matching) and full and partial weld metal penetrations. The load carrying capacities of these mentioned joints are evaluated with experiments and compared with the estimations by finite element analysis (FEA), and design rules in Eurocode3 and American Welding Society Code AWS D1.1. The results show that load carrying estimations by FEA, Eurocode3, and AWS D1.1 are in good agreement with the experiments. It is observed that the global load carrying capacity and ductility of the joints are affected by weld metal penetration and yield strengths of the base and filler materials. This influence is more pronounced in joints in S960 steel welded with under-matched filler material. Furthermore, the base plate material strength can be utilized in under-matched butt welded joints provided appropriate weld metal penetration and width is assured. Moreover, it is also found that the design rules in Eurocode3 (valid for design of welded joints in steels of grade up to S700) can be extended to designing of welds in S960 steels by the use of correlation factor of one.

Cellular materials' two important properties—structure and mechanism—can be selectively used for materials design; in particular, they are used to determine the modulus and yield strain. The objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of these two properties and to explore the synthesis of compliant cellular materials (CCMs) with compliant porous structures (CPSs) generated from modified hexagonal honeycombs. An in-plane constitutive CCM model with CPSs of elliptical holes is constructed using the strain energy method, which uses the deformation of hinges around holes and the rotation of links. A finite element (FE) based simulation is conducted to validate the analytical model. The moduli and yield strains of the CCMs with an aluminum alloy are about 4.42 GPa and 0.57% in one direction and about 2.14 MPa and 20.9% in the other direction. CCMs have extremely high positive and negative Poisson's ratios (NPRs) (νxy* ∼ ±40) due to the large rotation of the link member in the transverse direction caused by an input displacement in the longitudinal direction. A parametric study of CCMs with varying flexure hinge geometries using different porous shapes shows that the hinge shape can control the yield strength and strain but does not affect Poisson's ratio which is mainly influenced by rotation of the link members. The synthesized CPSs can also be used to design a new CCM with a Poisson's ratio of zero using a puzzle-piece CPS assembly. This paper demonstrates that compliant mesostructures can be used for next generation materials design in tailoring mechanical properties such as moduli, strength, strain, and Poisson's ratios.

The motivation of this paper is to develop a new and straightforward approach to provide a topology optimization solution for the layout design of stiffened plate/shell structures. Inspired by the similarities between the branching patterns in nature and stiffener layout patterns in engineering, a so-called material increasing design concept is first introduced to represent the topology configuration of the stiffened plate/shell structures. In addition, a well-founded mathematical explanation for the principles, properties, and mechanisms of adaptive growth behaviors of branching patterns in nature is derived from the Kuhn–Tucker conditions, leading to a novel optimality criterion which can serve engineering purposes for stiffener layout design. In this criterion, the common growth mechanism is described as an ideal ‘balanced point’ among individual branches in terms of their weight distribution. After characterizing the relationship between the growth behavior and mechanics self-adaptability, the reproduction of branching patterns in nature is implemented by a global coordinative model, which consists of several bottom programming models to find the optimal height distributions of individual branches and a top programming model to play a global coordinative role among them. The benefit and the advantages of the suggested method are illustrated with several 2D examples that are widely used in the recent research of topology optimization.

Design curves, such as fatigue design S-N curves, are usually constructed by analyzing test data, which often exhibit large scatter. There are several methods available to construct a design curve and some of these methods, with varying degrees of conservativeness, accuracy, and simplicity, have been adopted by engineering standards, codes and guidelines, such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code. However, to meet increasing engineering demands, a simplified and user-friendly engineering method with rigorous mathematical and physical basis is still urgently needed to accurately manage the margin of safety and decrease the cost. In this paper, the current engineering practices for constructing a design curve are briefly reviewed, followed by the introduction of the tolerance limit concept because of its ability to relate the design curve well to sample size, failure probability, and confidence level. Recognizing the physical unsoundness of the hyperbolic shape of the design curves constructed with the Owen's tolerance limit approach, a new simple design curve construction method is developed based on the “equal partition principle.” Finally, the predicted results from various methods are compared and the advantage of the new method is demonstrated with several worked examples.