Plastic railway sleepers: Creating a finite element model for hybrid plastic railway sleepers

Railway sleepers form an important part of a classic track structure. Sleepers exists in their current form for a long time. The transition from wood to concrete sleeper has been made, but wood is still used and present in many track sections. As creosoted wooden sleepers are not allowed to be installed on the tracks anymore the search for...

Predicting results of geometrical nonlinear FE analyses using Artificial Neural Networks: Applied to stiffened steel plated structures in sea lock gates

In this research project, an attempt is made to fuse the fields of structural mechanics and machine learning. The goal is to find out if models can be created that are capable of predicting the outcomes of (nonlinear) finite element analyses. These models are created by means of Artificial Neural Networks, which is a powerful method in the...

Residual Stress Analysis within Structures using Incremental Hole Drilling

Residual stress analysis within hybrid structures is the focus of this study. The non linear stresses through the thickness are determined using a semi-destructive method known as Incremental Hole Drilling (IHD). Finite element modeling is used to build a mathematical code simulating GLARE laminates with initial residual stresses applied. The...

Fatigue analysis of discharge area of 26kl tank container under railway transportation

Tank containers are intermodal containers for the transport of liquids, gases, and powders as bulk cargo However, hazardous vibration during transportation would generate fatigue damage at discharge area. This thesis aims at calculating fatigue damage at discharge area of a specified tank container. <br/><br/>The calculation is performed in time...