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Permanent Deformations (permanent + deformation)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Polymers and Materials Science20%

Selected Abstracts

Evolution of Permanent Deformations (or Memory) in Nafion 117 Membranes with Changes in Temperature, Relative Humidity and Time, and Its Importance in the Development of Medium Temperature PEMFCs,

FUEL CELLS, Issue 4 2009
G. Alberti
Abstract An important problem for medium temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cells (MT PEMFCs) operating in the temperature range 90,140,°C is the short time-life of proton conducting membranes. To shed some light on the empirical annealing treatments used for increasing the membrane durability, a systematic research on the effects of thermal treatments of Nafion 117 membranes was undertaken with the hope that the information obtained could be useful for a better understanding of the real limits for MT PEMFCs. Kinetic experiments showed that, for each couple of T,RH values, the water taken up from the membrane reaches a constant value only after long times of equilibration (,200,h). Taking into account that the enlargements provoked by the water-uptake remain as permanent deformations when the samples are cooled, it was found that the evolution of the deformations provoked by changes in temperature and RH can be conveniently estimated at 20,°C by determining the water taken up after equilibration in liquid water. By relating the counter-elastic index of the matrix (nc(m)) to the extent of these deformations, a set of equations were obtained which allowed us to predict their evolution with changes of temperature and relative humidity. A good agreement with experimental values was found. The importance of this discovery for the development of MT PEMFCs is discussed. [source]

Strain Rate Effects in the Mechanical Response of Polymer-Anchored Carbon Nanotube Foams,

ADVANCED MATERIALS, Issue 3 2009
Abha Misra
Strain rate effects on the mechanical properties of carbon nanotube forests are studied, and several related interesting new phenomena are reported. Dense vertically aligned foam-like forests of carbon nanotubes are anchored on a thin, flexible polymer layer to provide structural stability, particularly at the higher strain rates. Permanent deformation and for the first time the delamination and crumbling of carbon nanotube walls is observed. [source]

Micromechanical viscoelasto-plastic models and finite element implementation for rate-independent and rate-dependent permanent deformation of stone-based materials

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 13 2010
Qingli Dai
Abstract This paper presents parallel and serial viscoelasto-plastic models to simulate the rate-independent and the rate-dependent permanent deformation of stone-based materials, respectively. The generalized Maxwell viscoelastic and Chaboche's plastic models were employed to formulate the proposed parallel and serial viscoelasto-plastic constitutive laws. The finite element (FE) implementation of the parallel model used a displacement-based incremental formulation for the viscoelastic part and an elastic predictor,plastic corrector scheme for the elastoplastic component. The FE framework of the serial viscoelasto-plastic model employed a viscoelastic predictor,plastic corrector algorithm. The stone-based materials are consisted of irregular aggregates, matrix and air voids. This study used asphalt mixtures as an example. A digital sample was generated with imaging analysis from an optically scanned surface image of an asphalt mixture specimen. The modeling scheme employed continuum elements to mesh the effective matrix, and rigid bodies for aggregates. The ABAQUS user material subroutines defined with the proposed viscoelasto-plastic matrix models were employed. The micromechanical FE simulations were conducted on the digital mixture sample with the viscoelasto-plastic matrix models. The simulation results showed that the serial viscoelasto-plastic matrix model generated more permanent deformation than the parallel one by using the identical material parameters and displacement loadings. The effect of loading rates on the material viscoelastic and viscoelasto-plastic mixture behaviors was investigated. Permanent deformations under cyclic loadings were determined with FE simulations. The comparison studies showed that the simulation results correctly predicted the rate-independent and rate-dependent viscoelasto-plastic constitutive properties of the proposed matrix models. Overall, these studies indicated that the developed micromechanical FE models have the abilities to predict the global viscoelasto-plastic behaviors of the stone-based materials. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Dynamics of unsaturated soils using various finite element formulations

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 5 2009
Nadarajah Ravichandran
Abstract Unsaturated soils are three-phase porous media consisting of a solid skeleton, pore liquid, and pore gas. The coupled mathematical equations representing the dynamics of unsaturated soils can be derived based on the theory of mixtures. Solution of these fully coupled governing equations for unsaturated soils requires tremendous computational resources because three individual phases and interactions between them have to be taken into account. The fully coupled equations governing the dynamics of unsaturated soils are first presented and then two finite element formulations of the governing equations are presented and implemented within a finite element framework. The finite element implementation of all the terms in the governing equations results in the complete formulation and is solved for the first time in this paper. A computationally efficient reduced formulation is obtained by neglecting the relative accelerations and velocities of liquid and gas in the governing equations to investigate the effects of fluid flow in the overall behavior. These two formulations are used to simulate the behavior of an unsaturated silty soil embankment subjected to base shaking and compared with the results from another commonly used partially reduced formulation that neglects the relative accelerations, but takes into account the relative velocities. The stress,strain response of the solid skeleton is modeled as both elastic and elastoplastic in all three analyses. In the elastic analyses no permanent deformations are predicted and the displacements of the partially reduced formulation are in between those of the reduced and complete formulations. The frequency of vibration of the complete formulation in the elastic analysis is closer to the predominant frequency of the base motion and smaller than the frequencies of vibration of the other two analyses. Proper consideration of damping due to fluid flows in the complete formulation is the likely reason for this difference. Permanent deformations are predicted by all three formulations for the elastoplastic analyses. The complete formulation, however, predicts reductions in pore fluid pressures following strong shaking resulting in somewhat smaller displacements than the reduced formulation. The results from complete and reduced formulations are otherwise comparable for elastoplastic analyses. For the elastoplastic analysis, the partially reduced formulation leads to stiffer response than the other two formulations. The likely reason for this stiffer response in the elastoplastic analysis is the interpolation scheme (linear displacement and linear pore fluid pressures) used in the finite element implementation of the partially reduced formulation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Comparison of the modified three-rail shear test and the [(+45°,,45°)]ns tensile test for pure shear fatigue loading of carbon fabric thermoplastics

FATIGUE & FRACTURE OF ENGINEERING MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES, Issue 6 2008
I. DE BAERE
ABSTRACT The (three)-rail shear test is rarely considered for testing of fibre-reinforced composites under pure shear fatigue loading conditions because of all experimental difficulties. However, in this article, a carbon fabric-reinforced PPS is tested using a modified three-rail shear test setup. The results are compared with [(+45°,,45°)]4s tensile tests with good correspondence. All fatigue experiments were done with R= 0 and the influence of maximum shear stress and frequency is investigated. It can be concluded that an increase in maximum shear stress decreases fatigue lifetime, whereas an increase in frequency increases the lifetime. Before failure, a sudden increase in both temperature and permanent deformation could be detected. Creep tests yielded that the occurring deformation is mainly due to the fatigue loading, rather than due to creep phenomena. [source]

Artificial DNA Nano-Spring Powered by Protons

ADVANCED MATERIALS, Issue 25 2010
Chunyan Wang
A novel multifunctional, proton-fueled DNA nano-spring has been constructed. By incorporation of the G-quadruplex/i-motif sequence into the assembly, the nanodevice can perform spring-like motions in response to changes in the environmental pH without permanent deformation. Nanosized objects/functional groups could be assembled/disassembled into this system in an addressable, contractile, and reversible manner. [source]

Micromechanical viscoelasto-plastic models and finite element implementation for rate-independent and rate-dependent permanent deformation of stone-based materials

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 13 2010
Qingli Dai
Abstract This paper presents parallel and serial viscoelasto-plastic models to simulate the rate-independent and the rate-dependent permanent deformation of stone-based materials, respectively. The generalized Maxwell viscoelastic and Chaboche's plastic models were employed to formulate the proposed parallel and serial viscoelasto-plastic constitutive laws. The finite element (FE) implementation of the parallel model used a displacement-based incremental formulation for the viscoelastic part and an elastic predictor,plastic corrector scheme for the elastoplastic component. The FE framework of the serial viscoelasto-plastic model employed a viscoelastic predictor,plastic corrector algorithm. The stone-based materials are consisted of irregular aggregates, matrix and air voids. This study used asphalt mixtures as an example. A digital sample was generated with imaging analysis from an optically scanned surface image of an asphalt mixture specimen. The modeling scheme employed continuum elements to mesh the effective matrix, and rigid bodies for aggregates. The ABAQUS user material subroutines defined with the proposed viscoelasto-plastic matrix models were employed. The micromechanical FE simulations were conducted on the digital mixture sample with the viscoelasto-plastic matrix models. The simulation results showed that the serial viscoelasto-plastic matrix model generated more permanent deformation than the parallel one by using the identical material parameters and displacement loadings. The effect of loading rates on the material viscoelastic and viscoelasto-plastic mixture behaviors was investigated. Permanent deformations under cyclic loadings were determined with FE simulations. The comparison studies showed that the simulation results correctly predicted the rate-independent and rate-dependent viscoelasto-plastic constitutive properties of the proposed matrix models. Overall, these studies indicated that the developed micromechanical FE models have the abilities to predict the global viscoelasto-plastic behaviors of the stone-based materials. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Evolution of Permanent Deformations (or Memory) in Nafion 117 Membranes with Changes in Temperature, Relative Humidity and Time, and Its Importance in the Development of Medium Temperature PEMFCs,

FUEL CELLS, Issue 4 2009
G. Alberti
Abstract An important problem for medium temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cells (MT PEMFCs) operating in the temperature range 90,140,°C is the short time-life of proton conducting membranes. To shed some light on the empirical annealing treatments used for increasing the membrane durability, a systematic research on the effects of thermal treatments of Nafion 117 membranes was undertaken with the hope that the information obtained could be useful for a better understanding of the real limits for MT PEMFCs. Kinetic experiments showed that, for each couple of T,RH values, the water taken up from the membrane reaches a constant value only after long times of equilibration (,200,h). Taking into account that the enlargements provoked by the water-uptake remain as permanent deformations when the samples are cooled, it was found that the evolution of the deformations provoked by changes in temperature and RH can be conveniently estimated at 20,°C by determining the water taken up after equilibration in liquid water. By relating the counter-elastic index of the matrix (nc(m)) to the extent of these deformations, a set of equations were obtained which allowed us to predict their evolution with changes of temperature and relative humidity. A good agreement with experimental values was found. The importance of this discovery for the development of MT PEMFCs is discussed. [source]

Dynamics of unsaturated soils using various finite element formulations

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 5 2009
Nadarajah Ravichandran
Abstract Unsaturated soils are three-phase porous media consisting of a solid skeleton, pore liquid, and pore gas. The coupled mathematical equations representing the dynamics of unsaturated soils can be derived based on the theory of mixtures. Solution of these fully coupled governing equations for unsaturated soils requires tremendous computational resources because three individual phases and interactions between them have to be taken into account. The fully coupled equations governing the dynamics of unsaturated soils are first presented and then two finite element formulations of the governing equations are presented and implemented within a finite element framework. The finite element implementation of all the terms in the governing equations results in the complete formulation and is solved for the first time in this paper. A computationally efficient reduced formulation is obtained by neglecting the relative accelerations and velocities of liquid and gas in the governing equations to investigate the effects of fluid flow in the overall behavior. These two formulations are used to simulate the behavior of an unsaturated silty soil embankment subjected to base shaking and compared with the results from another commonly used partially reduced formulation that neglects the relative accelerations, but takes into account the relative velocities. The stress,strain response of the solid skeleton is modeled as both elastic and elastoplastic in all three analyses. In the elastic analyses no permanent deformations are predicted and the displacements of the partially reduced formulation are in between those of the reduced and complete formulations. The frequency of vibration of the complete formulation in the elastic analysis is closer to the predominant frequency of the base motion and smaller than the frequencies of vibration of the other two analyses. Proper consideration of damping due to fluid flows in the complete formulation is the likely reason for this difference. Permanent deformations are predicted by all three formulations for the elastoplastic analyses. The complete formulation, however, predicts reductions in pore fluid pressures following strong shaking resulting in somewhat smaller displacements than the reduced formulation. The results from complete and reduced formulations are otherwise comparable for elastoplastic analyses. For the elastoplastic analysis, the partially reduced formulation leads to stiffer response than the other two formulations. The likely reason for this stiffer response in the elastoplastic analysis is the interpolation scheme (linear displacement and linear pore fluid pressures) used in the finite element implementation of the partially reduced formulation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Finite elements modelling of the long-term behaviour of a full-scale flexible pavement with the shakedown theory

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 1 2009
Cyrille Chazallon
Abstract Rutting, due to permanent deformations of unbound materials, is one of the principal damage modes of low-traffic pavements. Flexible pavement design methods remain empirical; they do not take into account the inelastic behaviour of pavement materials and do not predict the rutting under cyclic loading. A simplified method, based on the concept of the shakedown theory developed by Zarka for metallic structures under cyclic loadings, has been used to estimate the permanent deformations of unbound granular materials subjected to traffic loading. Based on repeated load triaxial tests, a general procedure has been developed for the determination of the material parameters of the constitutive model. Finally, the results of a finite elements modelling of the long-term behaviour of a flexible pavement with the simplified method are presented and compared with the results of a full-scale flexible pavement experiment performed by Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées. Finally, the calculation of the rut depth evolution with time is carried out. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

An elastoplastic model based on the shakedown concept for flexible pavements unbound granular materials

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 6 2005
Taha Habiballah
Abstract Nowadays, the problem of rutting of flexible pavements linked to permanent deformations occurring in the unbound layers is taken into account only by mechanistic empirical formulas. Finite element modelling of realistic boundary value problems with incremental rheological models will lead to unrealistic calculation time for large cycle numbers. The objective of the authors is to present a simplified model which can be used to model the flexible pavements rutting with the finite elements framework. This method is based on the shakedown theory developed by Zarka which is usually associated to materials like steels. It has been adapted for granular materials by introducing a yield surface taking into account the mean stress influence on the mechanical behaviour and a dependency of the hardening modulus with the stress state. The Drucker,Prager yield surface has been used with a non-associated flow rule. Comparisons with repeated load triaxial tests carried out on a subgrade soil have been done. These comparisons underline the capabilities of the model to take into account the cyclic behaviour of unbound materials for roads. Finally, a discussion, dealing with the use of the simplified method within a finite element modelling of a full-scale experiment, is presented. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Biomechanical consequences of an isolated overload on the human vertebral body

JOURNAL OF ORTHOPAEDIC RESEARCH, Issue 5 2000
David L. Kopperdahl
The biomechanical consequences of an isolated overload to the vertebral body may play a role in the etiology of vertebral fracture. In this context, we quantified residual strains and reductions in stiffness and ultimate load when vertebral bodies were loaded to various levels beyond the elastic regimen and related these properties to the externally applied strain and bone density. Twenty-three vertebral bodies (T11-L4, from 23 cadavers aged 20,90 years) were loaded once in compression to a randomized nominal strain level between 0.37 and 4.5%, unloaded, and then reloaded to 10% strain. Residual strains of up to 1.36% developed on unloading and depended on the applied strain (r2 = 0.85) but not on density (p = 0.25). Percentage reductions in stiffness and ultimate load of up to 83.7 and 52.5%, respectively, depended on both applied strain (r2 = 0.90 and r2 = 0.32, respectively) and density (r2 = 0.23 and r2 = 0.22, respectively). Development of residual strains is indicative of permanent deformations, whereas percentage reductions in stiffness are direct measures of effective mechanical damage. These results therefore demonstrate that substantial mechanical damage,which is not visible from radiographs,can develop in the vertebral body after isolated overloads, as well as subtle but significant permanent deformations. This behavior is similar to that observed previously for cylindrical cores of trabecular bone. Taken together, these findings indicate that the damage behavior of the lumbar and lower thoracic vertebral body is dominated by the trabecular bone and may be an important factor in the etiology of vertebral fracture. [source]