An approximate method has been presented for the design analysis of engineering components subjected to combined cyclic thermal and mechanical loading. The method is based on the discretization of components using multibar modelling which enables the effects of stress redistribution to be included as creep and cyclic plasticity damage evolves. Cycle jumping methods have also been presented which extend previous methods to handle problems in which incremental plastic straining (ratchetting) occurs. Cycle jumping leads to considerable reductions in computer CPU (central processing unit) resources, and this has been shown for a range of loading conditions. The cycle jumping technique has been utilized to analyse the ratchetting behaviour of a multibar structure selected to model geometrical and thermomechanical effects typically encountered in practical design situations. The method has been used to predict the behaviour of a component when subjected to cyclic thermal loading, and the results compared with those obtained from detailed finite element analysis. The method is also used to analyse the same component when subjected to constant mechanical loading, in addition to cyclic thermal loading leading to ratchetting. The important features of the two analyses are then compared. In this way, the multibar modelling is shown to enable the computationally efficient analysis of engineering components.
Thermal deformation of gold nanostructures and its influence on surface plasmon resonance sensing
