An Improved Heat Equation for Fully Coupled Thermal-Structural Finite Element Analysis Using Small Strain Formulation

Abstract

In this paper an improved heat equation for fully coupled thermal structural finite element analysis is presented. In the problem solving process, mathematical formulation appropriate strain measures describing the onset and the growth of ductile and total damage and heat generation rate per unit volume for dissipation-induced heating have been employed. The model was implemented into a finite element code using an improved weak form for fully coupled thermal structural finite element analysis, an extended NoIHKH material model with internal damping for cyclic plasticity of metals capable of modelling ductile material behaviour in wide range of strain rates. A notched aluminium alloy specimen in cyclic tension using 2Hz excitation frequency and linearly increasing amplitude has been studied. The model verification showed excellent agreement with available experiments. A few selected analysis results are presented and briefly discussed.