An efficient strategy for large scale 3D simulation of heterogeneous materials to predict effective thermal conductivity
Abstract
The behavior of heterogeneous materials (e.g. composite, polycrystalline) is one of the most challenging subjects for researchers. Imaging techniques based on X-ray tomography permit one to obtain the inner structure of these materials. To account for such detailed information and understand the material behavior, the use of tomo-graphic images as an input for numerical simulations is becoming more and more common. The main difficulty is the computational cost, mesh generation in the context of finite element simulations and the large discontinuities of the material properties, which can lead to divergence. The subject of this paper is to resolve these problems and understand the behavior of a material with high heterogeneity. The application of a MultiGrid method coupled with homogenization technique is proposed. The MultiGrid method is a well known method to increase convergence speed. The homogenization technique is applied to compute the coarse grid operators of the MultiGrid process. The combination of the two methods can efficiently deal with large property variations. Hybrid MPI/OpenMP parallel computing is used to save computational time. The influence of material het-erogeneity is analyzed as well as the ratio of material properties for the thermal conduction. The effective thermal conductivity of material is illustrated.
Domains
Engineering Sciences [physics]
Origin : Files produced by the author(s)
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