On the Interaction of Viscoelasticity and Waviness in Enhancing the Pull-Off Force in Sphere/Flat Contacts

Motivated by roughness-induced adhesion enhancement (toughening and strengthening) in low modulus materials, we study the detachment of a sphere from a substrate in the presence of both viscoelastic dissipation at the contact edge, and roughness in the form of a single axisymmetric waviness. We show that the roughness-induced enhancement found by Guduru and coworkers for the elastic case (i.e. at very small detachment speeds) tends to disappear with increasing speeds, where the viscoelastic effect dominates and the problem approaches that of a smooth sphere. This is in qualitative agreement with the original experiments of Guduru’s group with gelatin. The cross-over velocity is where the two separate effects are comparable. Viscoelasticity effectively damps roughness-induced elastic instabilities and makes their effects much less important. Graphical Abstract

Nonlinear Behaviors of Three Dimensional Sloshing in the LNG Elastic Tank

Aiming at the nonlinear sloshing in the LNG tank, a three-dimensional elastic model is established to investigate the fluid structure interaction effect. For the transient flow and the tank motion, the direct coupling method is employed to calculate the interaction between the sloshing and the bulkhead. The finite element software ADINA is adopted to do the computation. The sloshing natural frequency is verified with the results of the theoretical formula. Different wall thicknesses, filling ratios and external excitations are considered and the structure natural frequency, surface elevation and sloshing pressure are obtained. The results of the elastic case are further compared with the rigid results and the nonlinear characteristics are extracted to see the hydro-elastic effect. The sloshing natural frequencies are agreed well with the theoretical results. Due to the influence of the fluid structure interaction, the couple frequencies are obviously less than those of the empty tank. With the increase of the wall thickness, the frequencies of the empty tank and the couple frequencies all increase gradually. For the surface elevation, the thinner the bulkhead thickness is, the more the high frequency component is. The free surface is relatively flat and stable in the rigid tank but tend to be chaotic for the elastic one. Due to the fluid structure interaction, the sloshing pressure of the elastic case presents obvious high-frequency fluctuation and the sloshing pressure in the elastic tank is smaller than that in the rigid tank. This model clearly shows the valuable ability to solve the three dimensional sloshing in the elastic tank.

Static and dynamic effective moduli of elastic-perfectly plastic granular aggregates under normal compression

Based on an existing simplified theoretical model for the normal contact interaction between two elastic-perfectly plastic spherical particles, we derived explicit expressions for the static and dynamic normal and dynamic tangential contact stiffnesses of elastic-perfectly plastic two-particle combination at pre-yield, yield, and post-yield conditions of normal loading. We used “static stiffness” or “loading stiffness” to refer to the slope of the force-displacement curve during monotonically increasing load. The “dynamic stiffness” or “unloading stiffness” refers to the stiffness that controls the speed of infinitesimal strain elastic waves propagating through the contacts. The static and dynamic contact stiffnesses are compared with numerical modeling of a two-sphere combination using the finite-element method. Furthermore, we used the explicit expressions for contact stiffnesses with the commonly used statistical averaging scheme to derive the static and dynamic effective bulk and shear moduli of a dry, random packing of identical elastic-perfectly plastic spherical particles. Elastic contact/mechanics-based effective medium models are unable to model the growth of contact area between inelastic (e.g., plastic) particles under normal force, which results in inaccurate predictions of contact stiffnesses and effective moduli. Once the particle reaches the limit of elasticity with onset of plastic deformation (yielding), further loading of two elastic-perfectly plastic spherical particles leads to a larger contact area than for two elastic particles under the same normal loading. As a result, after yielding, the dynamic effective moduli become stiffer than the corresponding moduli in the elastic case, whereas the static effective moduli remain constant, rather than increasing as in the elastic case.

Scale effects of velocity dispersion and attenuation (Q−1) in layered viscoelastic medium

We have used numerical modeling of normal incidence P-waves in periodic and nonperiodic viscoelastic layered media to help improve understanding of the scale effects of heterogeneity on velocity dispersion and attenuation. The improved understanding of these effects facilitates better interpretation and integration of data acquired at different scales, such as seismic data, well-log data, and laboratory measurements. We developed a direct method for estimating velocity and attenuation for viscoelastic media, the viscoelastic Kennett-Frazer (vKF) method, which is an invariant imbedding (reflectivity) method that uses reflection and transmission transfer functions. The vKF method is used to estimate rigorous dispersion and attenuation curves for periodic and nonperiodic cases. The results from our studies validate and quantify the intuitive qualitative understanding that dispersion and attenuation for a layered viscoelastic medium depend on the ratio of wavelength of the waves ([Formula: see text]) and the spatial period of the medium ([Formula: see text]), similar to the elastic case. We also decoupled the total effective attenuation obtained from the viscoelastic case into scattering attenuation that can be modeled from the elastic case and the intrinsic effective attenuation that is present in addition to the scattering attenuation in the viscoelastic case. The calculated intrinsic effective attenuation curves matched the theoretical values at the ray theory and effective medium theory limits. We derived analytical expressions for the long-wavelength limit of velocity and attenuation in a viscoelastic medium. Our expressions can be used directly for the upscaling of well logs to seismic scale considering viscoelastic effects. The expressions indicate the coupling between effective velocity and effective intrinsic attenuation in the long-wavelength limit. Finally, we use the derived expressions to determine the difference between elastic versus viscoelastic upscaling and to highlight the impact on traveltime and amplitude by properly considering viscoelastic information, especially for quantitative seismic interpretation workflows.

Multiscale Numerical Simulations of Branched Polymer Melt Viscoelastic Flow Based on Double-Equation XPP Model

The double-equation extended Pom-Pom (DXPP) constitutive model is used to study the macro and micro thermorheological behaviors of branched polymer melt. The energy equation is deduced based on a slip tensor. The flow model is constructed based on a weakly-compressible viscoelastic flow model combined with DXPP model, energy equation, and Tait state equation. A hybrid finite element method and finite volume method (FEM/FVM) are introduced to solve the above-mentioned model. The distributions of viscoelastic stress, temperature, backbone orientation, and backbone stretch are given in 4 : 1 planar contraction viscoelastic flows. The effect of Pom-Pom molecular parameters and a slip parameter on thermorheological behaviors is discussed. The numerical results show that the backbones are oriented along the direction of fluid flow in most areas and are spin-oriented state near the wall area with stronger shear of downstream channel. And the temperature alongy=-1is little higher in entropy elastic case than one in energy elastic case. Results demonstrate good agreement with those given in the literatures.

Torsion Instability of Offshore Cables During Installation

The present paper addresses torsion instability at the touch down point during installation of offshore cables and flexible pipes. A model for installation instability analysis is established on the basis of standard co-rotated beam elements. The model is validated with respect to the Greenhill analytical solution as well as results obtained for the linear elastic case reported in literature. A case study is then carried out to investigate the effects of cross-section friction moment, inherent torque and vessel motion. This is then used as basis for a proposed design criteria and recommended analysis procedures for evaluating kink formation of offshore flexibles during installation.

Reflection of P-Wave and Sv-Wave in a Generalized Two Temperature Thermoelastic Half-Space

In this work the theory of two temperature generalized thermoelasticity has been used to investigate the problem of reflection of P-wave and SV-wave in a half space when the surface is i) thermally insulated or ii) isothermal. The ratios of the reflection coefficient to that of the incident coefficient for different cases are obtained for P-wave and SV-waves. The results for various cases for the conductive and dynamical temperature have been compared. The results arrived at in the absence of the thermal field (elastic case) have also been compared with those in the existing literature. Finally, the results for various cases have been analyzed and depicted in graphs.

Eigenfunctions of Rayleigh Wave in Viscoelastic Halfspace

In this paper, the eigenfunctions of Rayleigh wave in viscoelastic halfspace is studied. By comparing the eigenfunctions of Rayleigh wave in viscoelastic halfspace and the corresponding elastic halfspace, we found the penetration depth of Rayleigh wave in viscoelastic halfspace is always larger than in the corresponding elastic halfspace. But the difference is small. The ratio of penetration depth and wave length under different cases is calculated, the results show penetration ability of Rayleigh wave in viscoelastic halfspace is always stronger than the corresponding elastic case, and penetration ability of Rayleigh wave gets weaker when the Poisson's ratio is smaller. The penetration ability of Rayleigh wave is stronger when the Q value is smaller. The study in the paper is meaningful for the further research of Rayleigh wave in viscoelastic media.