Universitätsbibliothek
Weimar Open Access

In the last two decades, Peridynamics (PD) attracts much attention in the field of fracture mechanics. One key feature of PD is the nonlocality, which is quite different from the ideas in conventional methods such as FEM and meshless method. However, conventional PD suffers from problems such as constant horizon, explicit algorithm, hourglass mode. In this thesis, by examining the nonlocality with scrutiny, we proposed several new concepts such as dual-horizon (DH) in PD, dual-support (DS) in smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), nonlocal operators and operator energy functional. The conventional PD (SPH) is incorporated in the DH-PD (DS-SPH), which can adopt an inhomogeneous discretization and inhomogeneous support domains. The DH-PD (DS-SPH) can be viewed as some fundamental improvement on the conventional PD (SPH). Dual formulation of PD and SPH allows h-adaptivity while satisfying the conservations of linear momentum, angular momentum and energy. By developing the concept of nonlocality further, we introduced the nonlocal operator method as a generalization of DH-PD. Combined with energy functional of various physical models, the nonlocal forms based on dual-support concept are derived. In addition, the variation of the energy functional allows implicit formulation of the nonlocal theory. At last, we developed the higher order nonlocal operator method which is capable of solving higher order partial differential equations on arbitrary domain in higher dimensional space. Since the concepts are developed gradually, we described our findings chronologically. In chapter 2, we developed a DH-PD formulation that includes varying horizon sizes and solves the "ghost force" issue. The concept of dual-horizon considers the unbalanced interactions between the particles with different horizon sizes. The present formulation fulfills both the balances of linear momentum and angular momentum exactly with arbitrary particle discretization. All three peridynamic formulations, namely bond based, ordinary state based and non-ordinary state based peridynamics can be implemented within the DH-PD framework. A simple adaptive refinement procedure (h-adaptivity) is proposed reducing the computational cost. Both two- and three- dimensional examples including the Kalthoff-Winkler experiment and plate with branching cracks are tested to demonstrate the capability of the method. In chapter 3, a nonlocal operator method (NOM) based on the variational principle is proposed for the solution of waveguide problem in computational electromagnetic field. Common differential operators as well as the variational forms are defined within the context of nonlocal operators. The present nonlocal formulation allows the assembling of the tangent stiffness matrix with ease, which is necessary for the eigenvalue analysis of the waveguide problem. The present formulation is applied to solve 1D Schrodinger equation, 2D electrostatic problem and the differential electromagnetic vector wave equations based on electric fields. In chapter 4, a general nonlocal operator method is proposed which is applicable for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) of mechanical problems. The nonlocal operator can be regarded as the integral form, ``equivalent'' to the differential form in the sense of a nonlocal interaction model. The variation of a nonlocal operator plays an equivalent role as the derivatives of the shape functions in the meshless methods or those of the finite element method. Based on the variational principle, the residual and the tangent stiffness matrix can be obtained with ease. The nonlocal operator method is enhanced here also with an operator energy functional to satisfy the linear consistency of the field. A highlight of the present method is the functional derived based on the nonlocal operator can convert the construction of residual and stiffness matrix into a series of matrix multiplications using the predefined nonlocal operators. The nonlocal strong forms of different functionals can be obtained easily via the concept of support and dual-support. Several numerical examples of different types of PDEs are presented. In chapter 5, we extended the NOM to higher order scheme by using a higher order Taylor series expansion of the unknown field. Such a higher order scheme improves the original NOM in chapter 3 and chapter 4, which can only achieve one-order convergence. The higher order NOM obtains all partial derivatives with specified maximal order simultaneously without resorting to shape functions. The functional based on the nonlocal operators converts the construction of residual and stiffness matrix into a series of matrix multiplication on the nonlocal operator matrix. Several numerical examples solved by strong form or weak form are presented to show the capabilities of this method. In chapter 6, the NOM proposed as a particle-based method in chapter 3,4,5, has difficulty in imposing accurately the boundary conditions of various orders. In this paper, we converted the particle-based NOM into a scheme with interpolation property. The new scheme describes partial derivatives of various orders at a point by the nodes in the support and takes advantage of the background mesh for numerical integration. The boundary conditions are enforced via the modified variational principle. The particle-based NOM can be viewed a special case of NOM with interpolation property when nodal integration is used. The scheme based on numerical integration greatly improves the stability of the method, as a consequence, the operator energy functional in particle-based NOM is not required. We demonstrated the capabilities of current method by solving the gradient solid problems and comparing the numerical results with the available exact solutions. In chapter 7, we derived the DS-SPH in solid within the framework of variational principle. The tangent stiffness matrix of SPH can be obtained with ease, and can be served as the basis for the present implicit SPH. We proposed an hourglass energy functional, which allows the direct derivation of hourglass force and hourglass tangent stiffness matrix. The dual-support is {involved} in all derivations based on variational principles and is automatically satisfied in the assembling of stiffness matrix. The implementation of stiffness matrix comprises with two steps, the nodal assembly based on deformation gradient and global assembly on all nodes. Several numerical examples are presented to validate the method.

The computational costs of newly developed numerical simulation play a critical role in their acceptance within both academic use and industrial employment. Normally, the refinement of a method in the area of interest reduces the computational cost. This is unfortunately not true for most nonlocal simulation, since refinement typically increases the size of the material point neighborhood. Reducing the discretization size while keep- ing the neighborhood size will often require extra consideration. Peridy- namic (PD) is a newly developed numerical method with nonlocal nature. Its straightforward integral form equation of motion allows simulating dy- namic problems without any extra consideration required. The formation of crack and its propagation is known as natural to peridynamic. This means that discontinuity is a result of the simulation and does not demand any post-processing. As with other nonlocal methods, PD is considered an expensive method. The refinement of the nodal spacing while keeping the neighborhood size (i.e., horizon radius) constant, emerges to several nonphysical phenomena. This research aims to reduce the peridynamic computational and imple- mentation costs. A novel refinement approach is introduced. The pro- posed approach takes advantage of the PD flexibility in choosing the shape of the horizon by introducing multiple domains (with no intersections) to the nodes of the refinement zone. It will be shown that no ghost forces will be created when changing the horizon sizes in both subdomains. The approach is applied to both bond-based and state-based peridynamic and verified for a simple wave propagation refinement problem illustrating the efficiency of the method. Further development of the method for higher dimensions proves to have a direct relationship with the mesh sensitivity of the PD. A method for solving the mesh sensitivity of the PD is intro- duced. The application of the method will be examined by solving a crack propagation problem similar to those reported in the literature. New software architecture is proposed considering both academic and in- dustrial use. The available simulation tools for employing PD will be collected, and their advantages and drawbacks will be addressed. The challenges of implementing any node base nonlocal methods while max- imizing the software flexibility to further development and modification will be discussed and addressed. A software named Relation-Based Sim- ulator (RBS) is developed for examining the proposed architecture. The exceptional capabilities of RBS will be explored by simulating three dis- tinguished models. RBS is available publicly and open to further develop- ment. The industrial acceptance of the RBS will be tested by targeting its performance on one Mac and two Linux distributions.