Digital Scanning of Welds and Influence of Sampling Resolution on the Predicted Fatigue Performance: Modelling, Experiment and Simulation

Digital weld quality assurance systems are increasingly used to capture local geometrical variations that can be detrimental for the fatigue strength of welded components. In this study, a method is proposed to determine the required scanning sampling resolution for proper fatigue assessment. Based on FE analysis of laser-scanned welded joints, fatigue failure probabilities are computed using a Weakest-link fatigue model with experimentally determined parameters. By down-sampling of the scanning data in the FE simulations, it is shown that the uncertainty and error in the fatigue failure probability prediction increases with decreased sampling resolution. The required sampling resolution is thereafter determined by setting an allowable error in the predicted failure probability. A sampling resolution of 200 to 250 μm has been shown to be adequate for the fatigue-loaded welded joints investigated in the current study. The resolution requirements can be directly incorporated in production for continuous quality assurance of welded structures. The proposed probabilistic model used to derive the resolution requirement accurately captures the experimental fatigue strength distribution, with a correlation coefficient of 0.9 between model and experimental failure probabilities. This work therefore brings novelty by deriving sampling resolution requirements based on the influence of stochastic topographical variations on the fatigue strength distribution.

Focusing of mode-2 internal solitary-like waves: an unexpected extreme internal wave

<p>We report on numerical simulations of stratified adjustment that yield radially propagating mode-2 waves. The initial inward propagating mode-2 wave increases in amplitude, but it does not lead to significant overturning even during the period of self-interaction near the origin. However, post-focusing, the pycnocline thins and secondary waves propagate into an environment that is very different from the undisturbed stratification. These resulting waves break, and create intrusions above and below the thinned pycnocline. While most experimental realizations of extreme internal solitary-like waves use a rectangular geometry, it should be possible to realize this situation experimentally. We discuss the resolution requirements of this situation, as well as irreversible mixing.</p>

Near Wall Resolution Requirements for High-Order FR/CPR Method for Wall-Resolved Large Eddy Simulations

This study aims to establish near wall resolution requirements for wall-resolved Large Eddy Simulations (LES) using the Flux Reconstruction / Correction Procedure via Reconstruction (FR/CPR) method. The FR/CPR method is relatively new and its numerical capabilities for LES are not well established. A high-order unstructured LES solver (GENESIS) based on the FR/CPR approach is used to study two canonical near wall turbulent flow problems. The first problem concerns spatial development of a turbulent flat plate boundary layer. The grid resolution requirement for various polynomial orders is established and the skin-friction and near wall turbulence is compared to theory and Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) results. The second problem studied is the two-dimensional wall film case of Kacker and Whitelaw (1968, 1969). This is a thermal mixing problem consisting of a two-dimensional jet for various mass flow ratios and plate thicknesses. This study focuses on one of the cases from this data set, corresponding to a thick plate. Well resolved LES simulations show an excellent agreement with measured adiabatic film effectiveness. The effect of polynomial order and grid resolution is investigated and near wall resolution requirements are established.

Hot phase generation by supernovae in ISM simulations: resolution, chemistry, and thermal conduction

ABSTRACT Supernovae (SNe) generate hot gas in the interstellar medium (ISM), help setting the ISM structure, and support the driving of outflows. It is important to resolve the hot gas generation for galaxy formation simulations at solar mass and sub-parsec resolution that realize individual SN explosions with ambient densities varying by several orders of magnitude in a realistic multiphase ISM. We test resolution requirements by simulating SN blast waves at three metallicities (Z = 0.01, 0.1, and 1 Z⊙), six densities and their respective equilibrium chemical compositions (n = 0.001–100 cm−3), and four mass resolutions (0.1–100 M⊙), in three dimensions. We include non-equilibrium cooling and chemistry, a homogeneous interstellar radiation field, and shielding with a modern pressure–energy smoothed particle hydrodynamics method including isotropic thermal conduction and a meshless-finite-mass solver. We find stronger resolution requirements for chemistry and hot phase generation than for momentum generation. While at 10 M⊙ the radial momenta at the end of the Sedov phase start converging, the hot phase generation and chemistry require higher resolutions to represent the neutral-to-ionized hydrogen fraction at the end of the Sedov phase correctly. Thermal conduction typically reduces the hot phase by 0.2 dex and has little impact on the chemical composition. In general, our 1 and 0.1 M⊙ results agree well with previous numerical and analytic estimates. We conclude that for the thermal energy injection SN model presented here resolutions higher than 10 M⊙ are required to model the chemistry, momentum, and hot phase generation in the multiphase ISM.

Is multiphase gas cloudy or misty?

ABSTRACT Cold T ∼ 104 K gas morphology could span a spectrum ranging from large discrete clouds to a fine ‘mist’ in a hot medium. This has myriad implications, including dynamics and survival, radiative transfer, and resolution requirements for cosmological simulations. Here, we use 3D hydrodynamic simulations to study the pressure-driven fragmentation of cooling gas. This is a complex, multistage process, with an initial Rayleigh–Taylor unstable contraction phase that seeds perturbations, followed by a rapid, violent expansion leading to the dispersion of small cold gas ‘droplets’ in the vicinity of the gas cloud. Finally, due to turbulent motions, and cooling, these droplets may coagulate. Our results show that a gas cloud ‘shatters’ if it is sufficiently perturbed out of pressure balance (δP/P ∼ 1) and has a large final overdensity χf ≳ 300, with only a weak dependence on the cloud size. Otherwise, the droplets reassemble back into larger pieces. We discuss our results in the context of thermal instability and clouds embedded in a shock-heated environment.