Abstract
A procedure is proposed to reduce the computation time of thermo-mechanical simulations with large nonlinear finite element (FE) models that involve cyclic plasticity. The procedure is helpful when it is practically unfeasible to simulate the huge amount of cycles needed to bring the material model to its fully stabilised state (an unfavourable situation that often occurs when small plastic strains are present), as required before assessing the structural durability. A “reference” test case, with combined kinematic and isotropic nonlinear model calibrated on actual material properties, is compared to accelerated models as well as pure kinematic models. Guidelines on how to set up the accelerated model are finally discussed.
Highlights
Structural durability of complex structures undergoing cyclic thermo-mechanical loadings may exploit results from elasto-plastic finite element (FE) analyses
Selecting the most appropriate cyclic plasticity model is a crucial step in thermo-mechanical finite element analysis
It may happen that the material model that fits more closely the experimental cyclic plasticity behavior is the one that, in finite element simulations, requires a too large number of cycles to reach its stabilized state
Summary
Structural durability of complex structures undergoing cyclic thermo-mechanical loadings may exploit results from elasto-plastic finite element (FE) analyses. The fatigue life assessment requires that the simulated cyclic material behavior reaches its complete stabilized condition (which occurs about at half the number of cycles to failure). In a recent study dealing with elasto-plastic analysis of a copper mold for steelmaking plant [1], it was estimated that the three-dimensional FE model would had required thousands of cycles (around 60000) to simulate the material behavior until complete stabilization, due to the unfavorable combination of small plastic strains and low stabilization speed of the mold alloy. The stabilization speed is increased up to a “fictitious” value (see figure 1), which permits the number of cycles for simulating the material behavior from the onset of plasticization up to the stabilized condition to be reduced considerably (and so the computation time, too). The reference case is an axisymmetric FE model of a hollow copper mold subjected to cyclic thermal loadings
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