Solid mechanics | EPFL Graph Search

Solid mechanics (also known as mechanics of solids) is the branch of continuum mechanics that studies the behavior of solid materials, especially their motion and deformation under the action of forces, temperature changes, phase changes, and other external or internal agents. Solid mechanics is fundamental for civil, aerospace, nuclear, biomedical and mechanical engineering, for geology, and for many branches of physics and chemistry such as materials science. It has specific applications in many other areas, such as understanding the anatomy of living beings, and the design of dental prostheses and surgical implants. One of the most common practical applications of solid mechanics is the Euler–Bernoulli beam equation. Solid mechanics extensively uses tensors to describe stresses, strains, and the relationship between them. Solid mechanics is a vast subject because of the wide range of solid materials available, such as steel, wood, concrete, biologica

A method to numerically determine the secondary electron yield considering effects of the surface morphology

Guang-Yu Sun, Ning Yang

Secondary electron emission (SEE) of solid materials due to electron bombardment is influenced by numerous properties of materials, where the surface condition plays a critical role in the value of secondary electron yield (SEY). Here, a 3D random microstructure surface model is established to simulate realistic surface morphology and study its effects on SEY by implementing a path tracing algorithm and finite element method. It is found that electron collision frequency on surfaces is strongly affected by local surface geometry parameters, namely the vertical height and the distance between similar features along the horizontal direction of random microstructure surfaces. Manipulating the interaction angle and the inter-barrier collision frequency could quantitively suppress or intensify SEE, allowing for functional design of solid material surfaces under various contexts. In addition, empirical roughness parameters (Ra, Rz) lack certain microscopic information. A method is proposed to estimate secondary electron yield numerically for a given material surface geometry. It provides copious utilities in practical SEE-related applications.

2021

Model order reduction for large-scale structures with local nonlinearities

Mengwu Guo, Jan Sickmann Hesthaven, Zhenying Zhang

In solid mechanics, linear structures often exhibit (local) nonlinear behavior when close to failure. For instance, the elastic deformation of a structure becomes plastic after being deformed beyond recovery. To properly assess such problems in a real-life application, we need fast and multi-query evaluations of coupled linear and nonlinear structural systems, whose approximations are not straight forward and often computationally expensive. In this work, we propose a linear-nonlinear domain decomposition, where the two systems are coupled through the solutions on the linear-nonlinear interface. After necessary sensitivity analysis, e.g. for structures with a high dimensional parameter space, we adopt a non-intrusive method, e.g. Gaussian processes regression (GPR), to solve for the solution on the interface. We then utilize different model order reduction techniques to address the linear and nonlinear problems individually. To accelerate the approximation, we employ again the non-intrusive GPR for the nonlinearity, while intrusive model order reduction methods, e.g. the conventional reduced basis (RB) method or the static-condensation reduced- basis-element (SCRBE) method, are employed for the solution in the linear subdomain. We provide several numerical examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2019

Object-oriented finite element programming

New technologies in computer science applied to numerical computations open the door to alternative approaches to mechanical problems using the finite element method. In classical approaches, theoretical developments often become cumbersome and the computer model which follows shows resemblance with the initial problem statement. The first step in the development consists usually in the analysis of the physics of the problem to simulate. The problem is generally described by a set of equations including partial differential equations. This first model is then replaced by successive equivalent or approximated models. The final result consists in a mathematical description of elemental matrices and algorithms describing the matrix form of the problem. The traditional approach consists then in constructing a computer model, generally complex and often quite different from the original mathematical description, thus making further corrections difficult. Therefore, the crucial problem of both the software architecture and the choice of the appropriate programming language is raised. Partially breaking with this approach, we propose a new approach to develop and program finite element formulations. The approach is based on a hybrid symbolic/numerical approach on the one hand, and on a high level software tool, object-oriented programming (supported here by the languages Smalltalk and C++) on the other hand. The aim of this work is to develop an appropriate environment for the algebraic manipulations needed for a finite element formulation applied to an initial boundary value problem, and also to perform efficient numerical computations. The new environment should make it possible to manage al1 the concepts necessary to solve a physical problem: manipulation of partial differential equations, variational formulations, integration by parts, weak forms, finite element approximations… The concepts manipulated therefore remain closely related to the original mathematical framework. The result of these symbolic manipulations is a set of elemental data (mass matrix, stiffness matrix, tangent stiffness matrix,…) to be introduced in a classical numerical code. The object-oriented paradigm is essential to the success of the implementation. In the context of the finite element codes, the object-oriented approach has already proved its capacity to represent and handle complex structures and phenomena. This is confirmed here with the symbolic environment for derivation of finite element formulations in which objects such as expression, integral and variational formulation appear. The link between both the numerical world and the symbolic world is based on an object-oriented concept for automatic programmation of matrix forms derived from the finite element method. As a result, a global environment in which the numerical is capable of evolving, using a language close to the natural mathematical one, is achieved. The potential of the approach is further demonstrated, on the one hand, by the wide range of problems solved in linear mechanics (electrodynamics in 1 and 2D, heat diffusion,…) as well as in nonlinear mechanics (advection dominated 1D problem, Navier Stokes problem), and, on the other hand by the diversity of the formulations manipulated (Galerkin formulations, space-time Galerkin formulations continuous in space and discontinuous in time, generalized Galerkin least-squares formulations).

EPFL1997

Object-oriented finite element programming

EPFL1997