Mechanical analysis of enhancement in tensile performance of thin-walled circular tubes by internal support

Fillers can improve the tensile performance of ductile tubes. Mechanical analyses of tensile tubes with filler have generally focused on experimental and numerical studies on concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) components, while mechanical performance of tensile tubes with flexible supporting fillers has rarely been investigated. In the current research, we have proposed a “steel tube+pre-stressed flexible internal support” structure. Meanwhile, strengthening of tensile thin-walled tubes with internal supports was studied in terms of stress and deformation. The trends of yield strength and ultimate strength of tensile tubes were determined and calculation equations of yield strength and normal ultimate strength of tensile tubes with internal support were derived. Strengthening coefficient variations as functions of radius-thickness ratios of steel tubes and elastic moduli of internal supports as well the optimized internal support p corresponding to maximum increment of tensile performance of tubes were also determined. It was experimentally verified that the initial supporting pre-stress of internal support on steel tubes could be achieved by cold shrink fitting technique. Experimental results revealed that the developed composite structure significantly enhanced the mechanical performance, fracture toughness, and energy consumption characteristics of tensile tubes. Hence, the proposed structure was confirmed to have promising applications.

Simulation study on modified coil configuration used for shrink fitting of semi-built-up crankshaft and parameters influencing the thermal distribution

Semi-built-up crankshafts are universally manufactured by shrink-fitting process with induction heating device. The configurations of induction coil have a great impact on the distributions of eddy current and temperature of crankthrows. Most induction devices are apt to cause some undesirable phenomena such as uneven temperature distribution and irregular deformation after induction heating. This article proposes a modified configuration of induction heating coil according to the crankthrow geometry. By combining the heat conduction equation and the heat boundary conditions, a three-dimensional finite element model, which takes into account the nonlinearity of the material’s electromagnetic and thermal physical properties in the heating process, was developed. The influence of several parameters, such as position and curvature of the arc coil, the current frequency and density, coaxiality of crankweb hole and coil, influencing the temperature distribution inside the crankthrow was also analyzed. The comparison with the numerical simulation results of the original configuration indicates that the modified configuration has better adaptability to the crankthrow. Also, it can help to improve the temperature distribution, and reduce the deformation of the shrink-fitting hole. This exploration provide an effective way for the enterprise to further enhance the shrink-fitting quality of crankshaft.

Design of a disk-mandrel assembly for achieving rotational autofrettage in the disk

Rotational autofrettage is a recently proposed method to induce beneficial residual stresses in axisymmetric hollow cylindrical bodies. The feasibility of the process has been studied for both disks and cylinders used in many engineering applications. The earlier analyses of rotational autofrettage of disks are based on certain assumptions. One of the crucial assumptions is the free rotation of the disk. However, the free rotation of the disk is practically difficult. In practice, it is feasible to rotate the disk by shrink-fitting it over a solid cylindrical mandrel. In view of this, a design of a disk-mandrel assembly for achieving rotational autofrettage in disks is proposed in this article. The main aim of the design is to obtain appropriate values of the disk-mandrel interference and the rotational speed of the assembly to prevent the loss of contact of the disk with the mandrel during rotation. The critical speeds corresponding to the yield onset, contact separation and the full plastic deformation of the disk are obtained as a function of shrink interference. The safe operating design parameters can be decided by plotting the critical speeds with varying interference values. A detailed stress analysis during elastic-plastic loading of the assembly followed by the analysis of residual stresses in the assembly after unloading is presented. The analysis is based on the plane stress assumption, Tresca yield criterion and elastic unloading. The analysis is validated with a finite element method model in ABAQUS. The proposed design is illustrated through the numerical example of an ASTM A723 disk-mandrel assembly to achieve rotational autofrettage in the disk. With a small overstrain level of 17.5% in the disk, a large magnitude of compressive residual stress, viz., 0.52 times the yield stress, is induced.

Instability of Incompatible Bilayered Soft Tissues and the Role of Interface Conditions

Mechanical stability analysis is instructive in explaining biological processes like morphogenesis, organogenesis, and pathogenesis of soft tissues. Consideration of the layered, residually stressed structure of tissues, requires accounting for the joint effects of interface conditions and layer incompatibility. This paper is concerned with the influence of imposed rate (incremental) interface conditions (RICs) on critical loads in soft tissues, within the context of linear bifurcation analysis. Aiming at simplicity, we analyze a model of bilayered isotropic hyperelastic (neo-Hookean) spherical shells with residual stresses generated by “shrink-fitting” two perfectly bonded layers with radial interfacial incompatibility. This setting allows a comparison between available, seemingly equivalent, interface conditions commonly used in the literature of layered media stability. We analytically determine the circumstances under which the interface conditions are equivalent or not, and numerically demonstrate significant differences between interface conditions with increasing level of layer incompatibility. Differences of more than tenfold in buckling and 30% in inflation instability critical loads are recorded using the different RICs. Contrasting instability characteristics are also revealed using the different RICs in the presence of incompatibility: inflation instability can occur before pressure maximum, and spontaneous instability may be excluded for thin shells. These findings are relevant to the growing body of stability studies of layered and residually stressed tissues. The impact of interface conditions on critical thresholds is significant in studies that use concepts of instability to draw conclusions about the normal development and the pathologies of tissues like arteries, esophagus, airways, and the brain.

Analysis of Dimensional Variations of Precision Gear Forging Die Geometry Due to Shrink Fit

The usual way to shrink fit design for precision forging dies are made by thick wall cylinder approach; i.e., taking the pitch diameter of the gear as bore diameter of the die insert without considering gear tooth shape. However, the compressive pre-stress due to the shrink fitting causes dimensional variations on the gear profile of the die insert. The dimensional accuracy of the final product is dependent on the accuracy of the gear die. Therefore, the dimensional variations due to shrink fit must be pre-determined and the gear tooth profile on the die insert modified accordingly. In this study, the dimensional variations of the precision spur gear forging die because of shrink fitting are analyzed by finite element method and the results are compared with the experimental ones. The results show that the FE model is successful to simulate the cylindrical die and agree well with thick wall cylinder approach and the experimental measurements. However, both the experimental measurements and the finite element results of gear die predict much higher radial displacements than the results of cylindrical die. Therefore, the determination of shape change of the gear die profile is beyond the capability of the thick wall cylindrical approach.