This paper studies the effective properties of multi-phase thermoelastic composites. Based on the Helmholtz free energy and the Gibbs free energy of individual phases, the effective elastic tensor, thermal-expansion tensor, and specific heats of the multi-phase composites are derived by means of the volume average of free-energies of these phases. Particular emphasis is placed on the derivation of new analytical expressions of effective specific heats at constant-strain and constant-stress situations, in which a modified Eshelby's micromechanics theory is developed and the interaction between inclusions is considered. As an illustrative example, the analytical expression of the effective specific heat for a three-phase thermoelastic composite is presented.

This paper studies the effective properties of multi-phase thermoelastic composites. Based on the Helmholtz free energy and the Gibbs free energy of individual phases, the effective elastic tensor, thermal-expansion tensor, and specific heats of the multi-phase composites are derived by means of the volume average of free-energies of these phases. Particular emphasis is placed on the derivation of new analytical expressions of effective specific heats at constant-strain and constant-stress situations, in which a modified Eshelby's micromechanics theory is developed and the interaction between inclusions is considered. As an illustrative example, the analytical expression of the effective specific heat for a three-phase thermoelastic composite is presented.

In subspace iteration method (SIM), the relative difference of approximated eigenvalues between two consecutive iterations is usually employed as the convergence criterion. However, though it controls the convergence of eigenvalues well, it cannot guarantee the convergence of eigenvectors in all cases. In the case when there is no shifting, the best choice for the convergence criterion of eigenvalues may generally be the computable error bound proposed by Matthies, which is based on an estimation of Rayleigh quotient of approximated eigenvalues expressed in the subspace. Matthies' form guarantees the convergence of both eigenvalues and eigenvectors and can be computed with almost negligible operations. However, it is not as popular as expected in implementations, partly because it does not consider the popular shifting acceleration technique of subspace iterations. In this paper, we extend Matthies' form to the case of nonzero shifting and prove that this extended error bound form with nonzero shifting can be used generally as a convergence criterion for eigenpairs. Besides, this paper details the derivation to illustrate that the extended error bound can also be applied to the case of positive semi-definite mass matrix by only slightly modifying the subspace iteration procedure. Numerical tests are presented to illustrate the motivation and to demonstrate the better performance of the modified computable error bound. The studies in this paper indicate that the modified Matthies' form of error bound can be effectively used as a preferred convergence criterion in the SIM. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The surface/interface energy theory based on three configurations proposed by Huang et al. is used to study the effective properties of thermoelastic nanocomposites. The particular emphasis is placed on the discussion of the influence of the residual interface stress on the thermal expansion coefficient of a thermoelastic composite filled with nanoparticles. First, the thermo-elastic interface constitutive relations expressed in terms of the first Piola-Kirchhoff interface stress and the Lagrangian description of the generalized Young-Laplace equation are presented. Second, the Hashin's composite sphere assemblage (CSA) is taken as the representative volume element (RVE), and the residual elastic field induced by the residual interface stress in this CSA at reference configuration is determined. Elastic deformations in the CSA from the reference configuration to the current configuration are calculated. From the above calculations, analytical expressions of the effective bulk modulus and the effective thermal expansion coefficient of thermoelastic composite are derived. It is shown that the residual interface stress has a significant effect on the thermal expansion properties of thermoelastic nanocomposites.

In subspace iteration method (SIM), the relative difference of approximated eigenvalues between two consecutive iterations is usually employed as the convergence criterion. However, though it controls the convergence of eigenvalues well, it cannot guarantee the convergence of eigenvectors in all cases. In the case when there is no shifting, the best choice for the convergence criterion of eigenvalues may generally be the computable error bound proposed by Matthies, which is based on an estimation of Rayleigh quotient of approximated eigenvalues expressed in the subspace. Matthies' form guarantees the convergence of both eigenvalues and eigenvectors and can be computed with almost negligible operations. However, it is not as popular as expected in implementations, partly because it does not consider the popular shifting acceleration technique of subspace iterations. In this paper, we extend Matthies' form to the case of nonzero shifting and prove that this extended error bound form with nonzero shifting can be used generally as a convergence criterion for eigenpairs. Besides, this paper details the derivation to illustrate that the extended error bound can also be applied to the case of positive semi-definite mass matrix by only slightly modifying the subspace iteration procedure. Numerical tests are presented to illustrate the motivation and to demonstrate the better performance of the modified computable error bound. The studies in this paper indicate that the modified Matthies' form of error bound can be effectively used as a preferred convergence criterion in the SIM. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The surface/interface energy theory based on three configurations proposed by Huang et al. is used to study the effective properties of thermoelastic nanocomposites. The particular emphasis is placed on the discussion of the influence of the residual interface stress on the thermal expansion coefficient of a thermoelastic composite filled with nanoparticles. First, the thermo-elastic interface constitutive relations expressed in terms of the first Piola-Kirchhoff interface stress and the Lagrangian description of the generalized Young-Laplace equation are presented. Second, the Hashin's composite sphere assemblage (CSA) is taken as the representative volume element (RVE), and the residual elastic field induced by the residual interface stress in this CSA at reference configuration is determined. Elastic deformations in the CSA from the reference configuration to the current configuration are calculated. From the above calculations, analytical expressions of the effective bulk modulus and the effective thermal expansion coefficient of thermoelastic composite are derived. It is shown that the residual interface stress has a significant effect on the thermal expansion properties of thermoelastic nanocomposites.

In this paper, we revisit the point-in-polyhedron problem. After reviewing previous work, we develop further insight into the problem. We then claim that, for a given testing point and a three-dimensional polyhedron, a single determining triangle can be found which suffices to determine whether the point is inside or outside the polyhedron.This work can be considered to be an extension and implementation of Horn's work, which inspired us to propose a theorem for obtaining determining triangles. Building upon this theorem, algorithms are then presented, implemented, and tested. The results show that although our code has the same asymptotic time efficiency as commonly used octree-based ray crossing methods, in practice it is usually several times and sometimes more than ten times faster, while other costs such as preprocessing time and memory requirements remain the same.The ideas proposed in this paper are simple and general. They thus extend naturally to multi-material models, i.e., polyhedrons subdivided into smaller regions by internal boundaries. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In this paper, a modified projection method is combined with a self-adaptive time step procedure to develop numerical scheme for large eddy simulation (LES) of low Ma number turbulent reactive flows. The projection method introduced by Chorin is modified in this study to satisfy the simulation requirement of low Ma number reactive flow. The time step in this computation is automatically determined according to the time scales of both chemical reaction and turbulent fluctuations. This enables the simulation to capture detailed flow structures with less computational time. Numerical simulation of methane-air jet flames is carried out as an example to validate the developed numerical scheme. The mechanism of a simplified 4-step chemical kinetics is applied for the methane-air reaction. The dynamic model is adopted for the turbulent motion of sub-grid scale (SGS). The dynamic similarity model is used as the SGS model for the reaction rate. The LES results satisfactorily depict the ignition process of the turbulent jet flames and illustrate lucid and detailed coherent structures of the fully developed turbulent reactive jet flow. The LES results also exhibit the mechanism and characteristics of local extinction. The method developed in this study provides an effective way to capture more flow details with less computational time. In addition the method also helps one to investigate the mechanism of ignition and local extinction in jet flames. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In this paper, we revisit the point-in-polyhedron problem. After reviewing previous work, we develop further insight into the problem. We then claim that, for a given testing point and a three-dimensional polyhedron, a single determining triangle can be found which suffices to determine whether the point is inside or outside the polyhedron.This work can be considered to be an extension and implementation of Horn's work, which inspired us to propose a theorem for obtaining determining triangles. Building upon this theorem, algorithms are then presented, implemented, and tested. The results show that although our code has the same asymptotic time efficiency as commonly used octree-based ray crossing methods, in practice it is usually several times and sometimes more than ten times faster, while other costs such as preprocessing time and memory requirements remain the same.The ideas proposed in this paper are simple and general. They thus extend naturally to multi-material models, i.e., polyhedrons subdivided into smaller regions by internal boundaries. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In this paper, a modified projection method is combined with a self-adaptive time step procedure to develop numerical scheme for large eddy simulation (LES) of low Ma number turbulent reactive flows. The projection method introduced by Chorin is modified in this study to satisfy the simulation requirement of low Ma number reactive flow. The time step in this computation is automatically determined according to the time scales of both chemical reaction and turbulent fluctuations. This enables the simulation to capture detailed flow structures with less computational time. Numerical simulation of methane-air jet flames is carried out as an example to validate the developed numerical scheme. The mechanism of a simplified 4-step chemical kinetics is applied for the methane-air reaction. The dynamic model is adopted for the turbulent motion of sub-grid scale (SGS). The dynamic similarity model is used as the SGS model for the reaction rate. The LES results satisfactorily depict the ignition process of the turbulent jet flames and illustrate lucid and detailed coherent structures of the fully developed turbulent reactive jet flow. The LES results also exhibit the mechanism and characteristics of local extinction. The method developed in this study provides an effective way to capture more flow details with less computational time. In addition the method also helps one to investigate the mechanism of ignition and local extinction in jet flames. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Simplicity of mesh generation and robustness against mesh entanglement during large deformations are key attractive features of particle based methods. These features can be exploited in number of engineering problems where traditional techniques suffer due to aforementioned limitations. Numerical modelling of particulate composites is one of such ideal engineering applications where particle based methods can be effectively used due to their simplicity and robustness. Complicated geometrical configurations of particulate composites obtained from techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) can be easily converted to particle based mesh without loosing much information. This enables more accurate analysis of the chosen composite materials. Therefore, a smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) based numerical technique is developed here to investigate the mechanical properties and evolution of debonding process in particulate composites. To perform the numerical study, a Lagrangian corrected SPH (CSPH) method is presented together with an appropriate numerical model for treating material interface discontinuity within the particulate composites. The material interface discontinuity is enforced using an innovative method which combines penalty formulation with a bilinear interface cohesive model for SPH method. The proposed SPH methodology is used in a number of numerical examples involving composite materials and related interface problems. The effect of penalty value on the interface model and of the smoothing length of the SPH method are also analysed during these simulations. The results illustrate the effectiveness, robustness and potential of the developed methodology. It is concluded that the proposed numerical techniques can be easily and effectively applied to simulate multi-phase composites with various interface conditions and, can provide useful information regarding the inherent mechanism of damage evolution and fracture of particulate or fibre reinforced composites. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Local transformation, or topological reconnection, is one of the effective procedures for mesh improvement method, especially for three-dimensional tetrahedral mesh. The most frequently used local transformations for tetrahedral mesh are so-called elementary flips, such as 2-3 flip, 3-2 flip. 2-2 flip, and 4-4 flip. Owing to the reason that these basic transformations simply make a selection from several possible configurations within a relatively small region, the improvement of mesh quality is confined. In order to further improve the quality of mesh, the authors recently suggested a new local transformation operation, small polyhedron reconnection (SPR) operation, which seeks for the optimal tetrahedralization of a polyhedron with a certain number of nodes and faces (typically composed of 20-40 tetrahedral elements).This paper is an implementation of the suggested method. The whole process to improve the mesh quality by SPR operation is presented; in addition, some strategies, similar to those used in advancing front technique, are introduced to speed up the operation. The numerical experiment shows that SPR operation is quite effective in mesh improvement and more suitable than elementary flips when combined with smoothing approach. The operation can be applied to practical problems, gaining high mesh quality with acceptable cost for computational time. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Local transformation, or topological reconnection, is one of the effective procedures for mesh improvement method, especially for three-dimensional tetrahedral mesh. The most frequently used local transformations for tetrahedral mesh are so-called elementary flips, such as 2-3 flip, 3-2 flip. 2-2 flip, and 4-4 flip. Owing to the reason that these basic transformations simply make a selection from several possible configurations within a relatively small region, the improvement of mesh quality is confined. In order to further improve the quality of mesh, the authors recently suggested a new local transformation operation, small polyhedron reconnection (SPR) operation, which seeks for the optimal tetrahedralization of a polyhedron with a certain number of nodes and faces (typically composed of 20-40 tetrahedral elements).This paper is an implementation of the suggested method. The whole process to improve the mesh quality by SPR operation is presented; in addition, some strategies, similar to those used in advancing front technique, are introduced to speed up the operation. The numerical experiment shows that SPR operation is quite effective in mesh improvement and more suitable than elementary flips when combined with smoothing approach. The operation can be applied to practical problems, gaining high mesh quality with acceptable cost for computational time. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.