The deformation of structural alloys presents problems for power plants and aerospace applications due to the demand for elevated temperatures for higher efficiencies and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The materials used in such applications experience harsh environments which may lead to deformation and failure of critical components. To avoid such catastrophic failures and also increase efficiency, future designs must utilise novel/improved alloy systems with enhanced temperature capability. In recognising this issue, a detailed understanding of creep is essential for the success of these designs by ensuring components do not experience excessive deformation which may ultimately lead to failure. To achieve this, a variety of parametric methods have been developed to quantify creep and creep fracture in high temperature applications. This study reviews a number of well-known traditionally employed creep lifing methods with some more recent approaches also included. The first section of this paper focuses on predicting the long-term creep rupture properties which is an area of interest for the power generation sector. The second section looks at pre-defined strains and the re-production of full creep curves based on available data which is pertinent to the aerospace industry where components are replaced before failure.

Gamma titanium aluminides (γ-TiAl) display significantly improved high temperature mechanical properties over conventional titanium alloys. Due to their low densities, these alloys are increasingly becoming strong candidates to replace nickel-base superalloys in future gas turbine aeroengine components. To determine the safe operating life of such components, a good understanding of their creep properties is essential. Of particular importance to gas turbine component design is the ability to accurately predict the rate of accumulation of creep strain to ensure that excessive deformation does not occur during the component’s service life and to quantify the effects of creep on fatigue life. The theta (θ) projection technique is an illustrative example of a creep curve method which has, in this paper, been utilised to accurately represent the creep behaviour of the γ-TiAl alloy Ti -45Al-2Mn-2Nb. Furthermore, a continuum damage approach based on the θ-projection method has also been used to represent tertiary creep damage and accurately predict creep rupture.

The device under investigation in this paper consists of a float used to capture tidal energy, which is tethered by multiple flexible cables to a large barge-like reactor. The proposed float is made of a continuously wound glass-reinforced composite shell with stainless steel bolting plates integrated into the float walls to allow the connection of 5 stainless steel cables. Numerical computations are required to assess whether a delamination of the composite layers in the float is likely. The manufacturing of the device has various potential uncertainties that should be investigated, such as the number of the plies, the bond strength between the composite layers, and the fibre orientations of the composite material relative to the applied load. This paper provides a multi-level strategy to optimise the composite float system, which is manufactured from glass-reinforced plastic (GRP). In contrast to previous publications on the topic, the current work uses an efficient link between ANSYS Workbench and MATLAB through an in-house code that has been developed over 3 years. This allowed the whole process to be fully automated and to reduce the time and cost of the simulations. Previously, ANSYS APDL was linked to MATLAB, but limitations in terms of the geometry and boundary conditions made it impractical when compared to ANSYS Workbench for the simulation of complex features. This makes the current approach unique and rare when compared to the published work in the field. This approach allows the use of a huge number of trials and is able to reduce the number of parameters to be studied by selecting the most sensitive ones. Additionally, the developed tools may be used for the efficient, robust optimisation of the proposed structure. The current study has focused on exploring the effects of the fibre orientations and the optimum number of plies on the overall performance of the structure.

The deformation of structural alloys presents problems for power plants and aerospace applications due to the demand for elevated temperatures for higher efficiencies and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The materials used in such applications experience harsh environments which may lead to deformation and failure of critical components. To avoid such catastrophic failures and also increase efficiency, future designs must utilise novel/improved alloy systems with enhanced temperature capability. In recognising this issue, a detailed understanding of creep is essential for the success of these designs by ensuring components that do not experience excessive deformation which may ultimately lead to failure. To achieve this, a variety of parametric methods have been developed to quantify creep and creep fracture in high temperature applications. This study reviews a number of well-known traditionally employed creep lifing methods with some more recent approaches also included. The first section of this paper focuses on predicting the long-term creep-rupture properties which is an area of interest for the power generation sector. The second section looks at pre-defined strains and the re-production of full creep curves based on available data which is pertinent to the aerospace industry where components are replaced before failure.

The current paper has investigated a newly developed re-bar system by implementing uncertainty models to optimise its geometry. The study of the design parameters of this re-bar system has been carried out utilising a novel uncertainty model that has been developed at Swansea University. The importance of this invention comes from the fact that the whole process of optimisation has been automated by linking ANSYS Workbench to MATLAB via the in-house written code, Despite the fact that in the past, ANSYS APDL was linked to MATLAB, however, the APDL was very limited to only simple geometries and boundary conditions unlike the Workbench which can simulate complex features. These shortfalls have been overcome by automating the process of optimisation, identifying the key influential parameters and the possibility to carry out a huge number of trials. Moreover, the tools that have been developed can pave the way for robust optimisation of this proposed structure. The uncertainty in the design parameters of this re-bar system is of a paramount importance in order to optimise the bond strength between the newly developed rebar and the concrete matrix as well as to fully understand the behaviour of the proposed system under pull-out conditions. The interface between the rebar and the concrete matrix was considered as a ‘cohesive zone’ whereby the interfacial area is studied as a function of the bonding strength.