To comprehensively study the physical properties of inductively coupled plasma (ICP), a finite element method (FEM) simulation model of ICP is developed using the well-established COMSOL software. To benchmark the validation of the FEM model, two key physical parameters, the electron density and the electron temperature of the ICP plasma, are precisely measured by the state-of-the-art laser Thomson scattering diagnostic approach. For low-pressure plasma such as ICP, the local pressure in the generator tube is difficult to measure directly. The local gas pressure in the ICP tube has been calibrated by comparing the experimental and simulation results of the maximum electron density. And on this basis, the electron density and electron temperature of ICP under the same gas pressure and absorbed power have been compared by experiments and simulations. The good agreement between the experimental and simulation data of these two key physical parameters fully verifies the validity of the ICP FEM simulation model. The experimental verification of the ICP FEM simulation model lays a foundation for further study of the distribution of various physical quantities and their variation with pressure and absorption power, which is beneficial for improving the level of ICP-related processes.

The world consequently gets faster, so does product development. Therefore, the stock of development and simulation data increases continuously. Unfortunately, inexperienced users cannot cope with the rising number of simulation requests in the time needed. Digital Engineering opens potentials to support the users with newly developed methods and tools. In this contribution, we present a method to assist designers, inexperienced in finite-element simulations to perform an initial check of changed parametric designs independently, quickly and with support in interpreting the results.

A prototype of an innovative split-single two stroke engine is presented. With the aim of increasing the power-to-weight ratio for later mobile use, the individual engine components have to be revised. The focus is on the development process for the redesign of the crankcase. Through a preliminary examination of the necessary CAx systems, an iterative process chain that combines suitable synthesis and analysis tools is derived. This includes the design of the machine elements, a numerical strength verification using FEM and preparing the model for machining.

This paper systematically compares the numerical implementation and computational cost between the Fourier spectral iterative perturbation method (FSIPM) and the finite element method (FEM) in solving partial differential equilibrium equations with inhomogeneous material coefficients and eigen-fields (e.g., stress-free strain and spontaneous electric polarization) involved in phase-field models. Four benchmark numerical examples, including inhomogeneous elastic, electrostatic, and steady-state heat conduction problems demonstrate that (1) the FSIPM rigorously requires uniform hexahedral (3D) and quadrilateral (2D) mesh and periodic boundary conditions for numerical implementation while the FEM permits arbitrary mesh and boundary conditions; (2) the FSIPM solutions are comparable to their FEM counterparts, and both of them agree with the analytic solutions, (3) the FSIPM is much faster in solving equilibrium equations than the FEM to achieve the accurate solutions, thus exhibiting a greater potential for large-scale 3D computations.

In this paper, the problem of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) boundary layer flow of nanofluid with heat and mass transfer through a porous media in the presence of thermal radiation, viscous dissipation and chemical reaction is studied. Three types of nanofluids, namely Copper (Cu)-water, Alumina (Al 2 O 3)-water and Titanium Oxide (TiO 2)-water are considered. The governing set of partial differential equations of the problem is reduced into the coupled nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) by means of similarity transformations. Finite element solution of the resulting system of nonlinear differential equations is obtained using continuous Galerkin-Petrov discretization together with the well-known shooting technique. The obtained results are validated using MATLAB “bvp4c” function and with the existing results in the literature. Numerical results for the dimensionless velocity, temperature and concentration profiles are obtained and the impact of various physical parameters such as the magnetic parameter M, solid volume fraction of nanoparticles 𝜙 and type of nanofluid on the flow is discussed. The results obtained in this study confirm the idea that the finite element method (FEM) is a powerful mathematical technique which can be applied to a large class of linear and nonlinear problems arising in different fields of science and engineering.

In this paper, numerical study was systematically conducted to analyze the shear banding evolution in bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) with various notches subjected to the uniaxial compression, and the relation between the notched configurations and compressive malleability was therefore elucidated. Free volume was used to be an internal state variable to depict the shear banding nucleation, growth and coalescence in the BMGs with the aid of free volume theory, which was incorporated into ABAQUS finite element method code as a user material subroutine. The present numerical procedure was firstly verified by comparing with the existing experimental data, and then parameter analysis was performed to discuss the impacts of notch shape, notch size, notch orientation, and notch configuration on the plastic deformability of notched samples. The present modeling will shed some light on the failure mechanisms and the toughening design of notched BMG structures in the engineering applications.

In this paper, a new algorithm is developed based on the homogenization method integrating with the newly developed Hybrid Treffe FEM (HT-FEM) and Hybrid Fundamental Solution based FEM (HFS-FEM). The algorithm can be used to evaluate effective elastic properties of heterogeneous composites. The representative volume element (RVE) of fiber reinforced composites with periodic boundary conditions is introduced and used in our numerical analysis. The proposed algorithm is assessed through two numerical examples with different mesh density and element geometry and used to investigate the effect of fiber volume fraction, fiber shape and configuration on the effective properties of composites. It is found that the proposed algorithm is insensitive to element geometry and mesh density compared with the traditional FEM (e.g. ABAQUS). The numerical results indicate that the HT-FEM and HFS-FEM are promising in micromechanical modeling of heterogeneous materials containing inclusions of various shapes and distributions. They are potential to be used for future application in multiscale simulation.

In this paper, we present the optimization works of two disk-type piezoelectric transformers (PTs), the single-output PT and the dual-output PT, by using the elite Genetic Algorithm (GA) and the finite-element solver, NTUPZE. The goal of optimization is to maximize the efficiency under the constraint that the voltage gain is greater than 50 for igniting CCFL. The design parameters are the radii of the outputelectrode sections and the electrode areas, as well as the dimensions of the device structure. With different electrical loading impedances, the voltage gain and the efficiency were computed using the NTUPZE. The results were also validated with measured data. The optimization process is parallelized by the MPI library and a PC cluster for improving the computation efficiency. The characteristics of the optimal designs with different loads are also calculated. The optimized voltage gain and the efficiency for the PT with single output electrode are about 53 and 91.9%, respectively. Also, the voltage gains and the efficiency of PT with dual output electrodes are above 57 and 91%, respectively.

The convergence of a two-scale FEM for elliptic problems in divergence form with coefficients and geometries oscillating at length scale ε << 1 is analyzed. Full elliptic regularity independent of ε is shownwhen the solution is viewed as mapping from the slow into the fast scale.Two-scale FE spaces which are able to resolve the ε scale of thesolution with work independent of ε and withoutanalytical homogenization are introduced. Robustin ε error estimates for the two-scale FE spaces are proved. Numerical experiments confirm thetheoretical analysis.