Meshfree simulation of failure modes in thin cylinders subjected to combined loads of internal pressure and localized heat

This paper focuses on the non-linear responses in thin cylindrical structures subjected to combined mechanical and thermal loads. The coupling effects of mechanical deformation and temperature in the material are considered through the development of a thermo-elasto-viscoplastic constitutive model at finite strain. A meshfree Galerkin approach is used to discretize the weak forms of the energy and momentum equations. Due to the different time scales involved in thermal conduction and failure development, an explicit–implicit time integration scheme is developed to link the time scale differences between the two key mechanisms. We apply the developed approach to the analysis of the failure of cylindrical shell subjected to both heat sources and internal pressure. The numerical results show four different failure modes: dynamic fragmentation, single crack with branch, thermally induced cracks and cracks due to the combined effects of pressure and temperature. These results illustrate the important roles of thermal and mechanical loads with different time scales. Copyright q 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.