Numerical modelling of thermal destruction of cylindrical shells with internal pre-pressure under laser irradiation

Abstract

In this paper a thermal elasto-plastic numerical model is established for studying the thermal destruction phenomenon for cylindrical shells under internal pre-pressure when subjected to laser irradiation. This model assumes that the heat conduction analysis is coupled with the strain velocity ε, while the physical properties of the material, e.g. Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio, yield stress and linear expansion coefficient, are assumed to be known functions of temperature. The sub-structural method is used to reduce the degrees of freedom in both the temperature field and stress field analyses. A numerical example is given for which the results agree well with experiment values, from which it is concluded that the model presented describes the whole process of thermal destruction quite well for cylindrical shells with internal pre-pressure under laser irradiation.