Evaluation of Cumulative Collapse of a LNG Carrier Hull Girder Under Dynamic Cyclic Bending Moments

The present paper continues the recent work reported by Liu and Guedes Soares [1] where finite element simulations were conducted to investigate the ultimate strength of a container ship hull girder under cyclic bending moments. Here a membrane LNG carrier is investigated to evaluate the “cyclic ultimate strength” of this specialized ship hull structure including double bottoms, sides and decks. The paper aims to analyze the ultimate strength and to compare the collapse modes of a LNG carrier hull girder under monotonic and dynamic cyclic bending moments, revealing the difference in their failure modes. Nonlinear finite element method is employed, using the explicit LS-DYNA solver, to analyze the ultimate strength of hull structures. The numerical results show that the cyclic ultimate strength of hull structures is about 20% lower than the monotonic ultimate strength in the present study.

Generalized Nonlinear Constitutive Law Applied to Steel Trapezoidal Sheet Plates

In the paper, a modified nonlinear finite element method for analysis of trapezoidal plates geometrically reduced to shallow-shell Reissner-Mindlin formulation is presented. Due to the method proposed the complex plate cross-section and nonlinear materials may be modelled and no implementation of advanced constitutive law via user subroutines is needed. The generalized nonlinear constitutive law is used to update the stiffness of the plate element. The method enables modeling of complicated cross-sections, such as steel trapezoidal sheets, metal facing sandwich panels or reinforced concrete. Additionally, for those geometrically complex sections an advanced nonlinear material may be adopted. To verify the proposed method, a selected trapezoidal sheets were modeled in a commercial software as full 3D shell structures. By comparing displacements and forces, it was shown that both models behave almost identically, however, the simplified model has about 300-400 times less degrees of freedom, thus it is much more efficient.

Mechanical buckling of nanocomposites: Experimental and numerical investigations

The proposed research explores Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube’s (MWCNT’s) effect on the mechanical buckling behavior of glass fiber-enhanced thermosetting composites using UTM and the load vs displacement curve is plotted. Using the inflection point method, the critical buckling load is obtained from the load vs displacement curve for beams with three different volume fractions of MWCNT. The nonlinear finite element method is used to numerically obtain the load vs deflection curve and the numerical results are compared with the experimental results, and a close match is found with the experimental results. It is observed that the nonlinearity associated with the structure can significantly reduce the critical buckling load. The critical buckling load is found to increase and reported a 27.4% increase in buckling load with 0.3 wt.% of MWCNT which could be accounted for the increase in flexural modulus of the material.

A nonlinear semi-continuum model for silicon micro/nanosheets and its application in bending and vibration

Background: This paper is concerned with a nonlinear semi-continuum model for an ultrathin structure. The basic equations of the theoretical model for silicon micro/nanosheets are derived, and the geometric nonlinearity is introduced in the model. Methods: From two different approaches including the new strain energy and the new external potential energy, we establish the nonlinear semi-continuum theoretical model of silicon micro/nanosheets, respectively. A new dimensionless nonlinear semi-continuum parameter is defined. Based on the theoretical model, the characteristics of bending deformation and free vibration are revealed. Results: The relationships between bending deflection and atomic layers in thickness direction as well as the relaxation coefficient between atomic layers are analyzed. The resonance frequencies of free vibration and their relationship with atomic layers are calculated. By introducing the specific property parameters of silicon micro/nanomaterials, several numerical calculations have been carried out. Conclusion: The theoretical results are compared with other studies in the literature, such as nonlinear finite element method (FEM), experimental and classical results, to validate the semi-continuum model established in the present research. This work can provide new ideas for the mechanical analyses of micro/nanomaterials and structures, and the results could be foundations for the design and application of silicon micro/nanosheets.