Rahav Venkateswaran, M.Sc.
Beethovenstraße 51
38106 Braunschweig
Telephone: 0531/391-3682
Research project:
Numerical Modelling of Crack Nucleation and Crack Propagation in Steel with The Discrete Element Method
Metals such as steel which are widely employed in civil engineering structures are often used in their refined form. Apart from intrinsic microscopic flaws that occur during manufacturing, thermodynamically a refined metal has the tendency to return to its naturally occurring form by means of atmospheric corrosion. Therefore, in order to have a realistic prediction of the serviceable life of civil engineering structures, the coupled multifield processes occurring at various length and time scales in such materials must be considered.
The Discrete Element Method (DEM) offers the inherent ability to model the spontaneous evolution of discontinuities and their subsequent propagation in comparison to continuum mechanics. However, the range of material that can be represented within DEM is in general restricted to values of Poisson’s ration under 0.25. Also, within this range, a stiffer response of the structured is observed. This is especially prominent under bending dominated problems. Since an accurate elastic material response is a prerequisite for subsequent analysis, the primary focus of this work is the development of a bond model that accurately captures the linear elastic domain for values of Poisson’s ratio in the range 0 to under 0.5. Later, the proposed model will be extended to capture the inelastic material response of steel and with an appropriate crack nucleation criterion. Then as a final step, an approach to describe the corrosion of steel based on reaction kinetics and the subsequent diffusion of electrolyte will be proposed and coupled with the mechanical response of the structure.
Publications:
Venkateswaran, R.G., Kowalsky, U. & Dinkler, D. A modified bond model for describing isotropic linear elastic material behaviour with the discrete element method. Comp. Part. Mech. 9, 465–483 (2022). doi.org/10.1007/s40571-021-00422-0