Abstract

The cardiovascular diseases constitute one of the main causes of death worldwide. One of the main diseases is atherosclerosis, which causes narrowing of the arterial lumen. In order to solve this condition, several treatments have been developed, and Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA) with the placement of stent have gained relevancy. Many of these devices are currently coated to increase the biocompatibility and to decrease the restenosis risks. The biomechanical studies of the stent-coating interface behavior are necessary given the associated risks to possibility of failures or breakages of the coating during stent deployment. In this study the possible occurrence of coating delamination during stent deployment and the influence of parameters as the thickness and material were studied. The study starts by obtaining a geometric model of a stent unit of the Sirius Carbostent stent for the further processing by the Finite Element Method. The simulation was developed by applying restrictions so that the modeled stent hinge simulates his behavior during stent deployment. Considering these aspects it was possible to evaluation the coating integrity. With this model it was possible to predict the occurrence of delamination during stent deployment and to determine that the delamination risks increases with increasing the coating thickness. Finally, it was obtained a general function that allows to determine the maximal contact stress for a stent hinge with an U shape.

Abstract

A method based on the Refined Zigzag Theory (RZT) to model delamination in composite laminated beam structures is presented. The novelty of this method is the use of one-dimensional finite elements to discretize the geometry of the beam. The key property of this beam element, named LRZ, is the possibility to capture the relative displacement between consecutive layers which occurs during delamination. The fracture mode that the LRZ element is capable to predict is mode II. In order to capture the relative displacement using the LRZ element it is necessary to adapt the RZT theory as presented in this paper. The mechanical properties of the layers are modeled using a continuum isotropic damage model. The modified Newton–Raphson method is used for solving the non-linear problem.

The RZT theory, the LRZ finite element and the isotropic damage model are described in the paper. Also, the implicit integrations algorithm is presented. The performance of the LRZ element is analyzed by studying the delamination in a beam for two different laminates, using the plane stress solution as a reference.

Abstract

A numerical method based on the Refined Zigzag Theory (RZT) to model delamination in composite laminated plate/shell structures is presented. The originality of this method is the use of 4-noded quadrilateral plate finite elements whit only seven variables per node to discretize the plate/shell geometry. The ability to capture the relative displacement between consecutive layers in fracture mode II and III is the more important advantage of this element, denoted QLRZ.

A continuum isotropic damage model is used to model the mechanical behavior of the plies. The material non-lineal problem is solved with the modified Newton–Raphson method.

The RZT plate theory, the QLRZ finite element and the isotropic damage model are described in this work. Also, the implicit integration algorithm is presented. The performance of the numerical model is analyzed by studying the delamination in a rectangular plate for two different laminates, using the 3D analysis as the reference solution

Abstract

The numerical simulation of complex failure modes of composite materials, such as delamination, can be computationally very demanding, as it requires special elements and/or numerical strategies to characterize damage onset and propagation. This work presents several formulations developed to optimize the computational performance of an explicit finite element code designed specifically for the simulation of large scale composite structures. The composite mechanical performance is obtained with the matrix-reinforced mixing theory, a simplified version of the serial/parallel mixing theory that does not require an iterative procedure or the calculation of the tangent stiffness matrix. The number of elements required to perform the simulation is reduced by stacking several layers inside a single finite element. This work also proposes a modification of the isotropic damage law, capable of taking into account the residual strength provided by friction in type II fracture modes. The ability of these formulations to successfully predict the mechanical performance of composite materials is assessed with the ply drop-off test. In this test a laminate with a change of thickness in its mid-span is loaded until it breaks due to a delamination process. The formulation proposed obtains a very accurate prediction of the experimental response of the test, as it provides a very good characterization of the initial laminate stiffness, the delamination onset, and its propagation along the specimen. 

Abstract

This work shows possibilities and limitations of the refined zigzag theory (RZT) that has been used in different structural (beam, plate and shell) finite elements. The refined zigzag theory can deal with composite laminates, adding only one nodal degree of freedom per spatial dimension of the laminate, obtaining very good accuracy. It assumes that the in-plane displacements have a piece-wise linear shape across the thickness depending on the shear stiffness of each composite layer. This paper presents the main aspects of a beam/shell of revolution element used for the numerical simulations. The details of the refined zigzag theory are given also in order to discuss some limitations that occur when dealing with the non-linear phenomenon of delamination. Two examples are presented and discussed, including different inhomogeneities that show the limitations of the RZT for the treatment of partially delaminated beams

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is the evaluation of the bending-twisting coupling effect in the analysis of the DCB test by means of the analytical determination of the energy release rate of angle-ply laminated composites. The aim is to extend a previous work done by the same authors to new laminate configurations. Angle-ply laminates with symmetrical arms are analyzed, since in this case the application of a bending moment by means of the piano hinges causes a torsional rotation in each of the arms. That torsion is prevented by the hinges, due to the configuration of the test. Therefore, there is a non-uniform load distribution applied by the hinges, whose resultant is the applied load P and the resultant moment is an unknown twisting moment mt, which prevents rotation at the point of application. The resolution of the resulting system of forces and moments allows obtaining analytically the energy release rate, and analyzing the terms due exclusively to the bending-twisting coupling.

Abstract

Impact is one of most critical stress over a structure, so as it induces a high strain rate on the material. Under low speed transverse impacts in composites, the secuence of material degradation is: intralaminar fracture of the matrix that does not mean a load bearing capacity decrease but makes it easier the starting of the seconf failure mode: the interlaminar failure of the matrix or delamination and, finally, the intralaminar failure of fibre.

Delamination is one of the most critical failure mechanisms in composites because it means an important bearing capacity loss, It is quite difficult to detect visually and it's evolution determines the subsequent failure of the component. That behaviour depends on it's interlaminar fracture toughness. Nowadays there is not a general agreement over the dependency between interlaminar fracture toughness, in Modes I&II, and the strain rate. Nevertheless several biaxial equi energy impacts show that delaminated area increases as same as load rate application, so it is clear a dependency between fracture energy and load rate.

This work shows the set-up and first results of a Mode I test using a drop weigth impact tester.

Abstract

Abstract

Although laminated materials have been used for decades, their employment has increased nowadays in the last years as a result of the gained confidence of the industry on these materials. This has provided the scientific community many reasons to dedicate considerable amount of time and efforts to address a better understanding of their mechanical behavior. With this objective both, experimental and numerical simulation have been working together to give response to a variety of problems related with these materials.

Regarding numerical simulation, a correct modeling of the kinematics of laminated materials is essential to capture the real behavior of the structure. Moreover, once the kinematics of the structure has been accurately predicted other non-linear phenomena such as damage and/or plasticity process could be also studied.

In consequence, in order to contribute to the constant development of simpler and more efficient numerical tools to model laminated materials, a numerical method for modeling mode II/III delamination in advanced composite materials using one-and two-dimensional finite elements is proposed inthis work. In addition, two finite elements base on a zigzag theory for simulating higly heterogeneous multilayered beams and plates structures are developed here.

The document is written based on results of four papers published in indexed journals. Copies of all these papers are included in Appendix. The main body of this thesis is constituted by Chapters 2 to 4. Chapter 2 deals with the numerical treatment of laminated beams and plates. Chapter 3 presents the formulation of the LRZ beam and the QLRZ plate finite elements based on the Refined Zigzag theory. Finally, the main contribution of this thesis, the LRZ/QLRZ delamination model, is developed in Chaptert 4.

Abstract

This article is focused on the study of a micro-macro LaTIn based Domain Decomposition Method (LaTIn-DDM) for the prediction of the nonlinear behavior of slender composite structures subjected to bending, buckling and delamination. Previous studies have shown that an adequate selection of the iterative parameters (search directions and macroscopic space) allow to improve the convergence rate and ensure scalability (i.e. number of iterations is independent of the number of subdomains) of the iterative schema. To obtain precise solutions, only the size reduction of the subdomains' discretization has been addressed (h-refinement), disregarding the option of increasing the polynomial degree of the finite elements (p-refinement) and ignoring their underlying effects on the information's transmission through the interfaces between subdomains. In this work and using linear and quadratic finite elements, h and p refinements on the subdomains and local h-refinement only along the edges of the subdomains were investigated. It is conclude that the p-refinement in the whole subdomain not only enables to reach more exact solutions than using global or local h-refinement, but also the convergence rate is improved. These enhancements allow more complex simulations but using less degrees of freedom and less calculation time, even up to 97% faster.