Fault-tolerant elastic-plastic lattice material.

The paper describes a fault-tolerant design of a special two-dimensional beam lattice. The morphology of such lattices was suggested in the theoretical papers (Cherkaev and Ryvkin 2019 Arch. Appl. Mech. 89, 485-501; Cherkaev and Ryvkin 2019 Arch. Appl. Mech. 89, 503-519), where its superior properties were found numerically. The proposed design consists of beam elements with two different thicknesses; the lattice is macro-isotropic and stretch dominated. Here, we experimentally verify the fault-tolerant properties of these lattices. The specimens were three-dimensional-printed from the VeroWhite elastoplastic material. The lattice is subjected to uniaxial tensile loading. Due to its morphology, the failed beams are evenly distributed in the lattice at the initial stage of damage; at this stage, the material remains intact, preserves its bearing ability, and supports relatively high strains before the final failure. At the initial phase of damage, the thinner beams buckle; then another group of separated thin beams plastically yield and rupture. The fatal macro-crack propagates after the distributed damage reaches a critical level. This initial distributed damage stage allows for a better energy absorption rate before the catastrophic failure of the structure. The experimental results are supported by simulations which confirm that the proposed fault-tolerant material possesses excellent energy absorption properties thanks to the distributed damage stage phenomenon. This article is part of the theme issue 'Modelling of dynamic phenomena and localization in structured media (part 2)'.

Numerical models of net-structure stents inserted into arteries.

INTRODUCTION: Restenosis is strongly attributed to stresses caused by stent-artery interactions generated in the artery after balloon angioplasty. Numerical methods are often used to examine the stent-artery mechanical interactions. To overcome the extensive computational requirements demanded by these simulations, simplifications are needed. OBJECTIVE: We introduce simplified models to calculate the mechanical interactions between net-structured stents and arteries, and discuss their validity and implications. METHODS: 2D simplified numerical models are suggested, which allow cost effective assessment of arterial stresses and the potential damage factor (DF). In these models, several contact problems were solved for arteries with hyper elastic mechanical properties. Stresses were calculated for a large range of cases and for different numerical model types. The effects of model simplifications, oversizing mismatch and stenosis rate and length and symmetry on the resulting stresses were analyzed. RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS: Results obtained from planar 2D models were found in good agreement with results obtained from complex 3D models for cases with axisymmetric constant or varying stenosis. This high correlation between the results of 3D cases with varying stenosis and the more simple 2D cases can be used as a simplified and convenient tool for calculating the arterial wall stresses in complex cases. Maximal stresses obtained by the 2D model with an asymmetric stenosis are lower than the maximal stresses obtained in the axisymmetric case with the same stenosis percentage. Therefore, axisymmetric models may provide the worst-case estimation values for a stent of interest.

The analysis of localized effects in composites with periodic microstructure.

Several methods for the analysis of composite materials with periodic microstructure in which localized effects (such as concentrated loads, cracks and stationary/progressive damage) occur are resented. Owing to the loss of periodicity caused by these localized effects, it is no longer possible to identify and analyse a repeating unit cell that characterizes the periodic composite. For elastostatic problems, these methods are based on the combination of the representative cell method (RCM), the higher-order theory for functionally graded materials and often the high-fidelity generalized method of cells (HFGMC) micromechanical model. For elastodynamic problems, the combination of the dynamic RCM with a theory for wave propagation in heterogeneous media is used for the prediction of the time-dependent response of the periodic composite with localized effects. In the framework of the RCM, the problem for a periodic composite that is discretized into numerous identical cells is reduced to a problem of a single cell in the discrete Fourier transform domain. In the framework of the higher-order theory and the theory of wave propagation in composites, the resulting governing equations and interfacial conditions in the transform domain are solved by dividing the single cell into subcells and imposing the latter in an average (integral) sense. The HFGMC is often used for the prediction of the proper far-field boundary conditions based on the response of the unperturbed composite. The inverse of the Fourier transform provides the real elastic field at any point of a composite with localized effects. This research summarizes a series of investigations for the prediction of the behaviour of periodic composites with localized loading, fibre loss, damage and cracks subjected to static and dynamic loadings under isothermal and full thermomechanical coupling conditions.

The Cardiocoil stent-artery interaction.

An analytical approach for the mechanical interaction of the self-expanding Cardiocoil stent with the stenosed artery is presented. The damage factor as the contact stress at the stent-artery interface is determined. The stent is considered as an elastic helical rod having a nonlinear pressure-displacement dependence, while the artery is modeled by an elastic cylindrical shell. An influence of a moderate relative thickness of the shell is estimated. The equations for both the stent and the artery are presented in the stent-associated helical coordinates. The computational efficiency of the model enabled to carry out a parametric study of the damage factor. Comparative examinations are conducted for the stents made of the helical rods with circular and rectangular cross sections. It was found, in particular, that, under same other conditions, the damage factor for the stent with a circular cross section may be two times larger than that for a rectangular one.