Simulation of Thermomechanical Couplings of Viscoelastic Materials

F. Neff [1], T. Miquel [2], M. Johlitz [1],
[1] Universität der Bundeswehr München, Munich, Germany
[2] École polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
Published in 2016

Using COMSOL Multiphysics® software, a new model was implemented with the Physics Builder functionality, which provides a thermomechanical coupling. It consists of two independent physics interfaces, one for the mechanical, viscoelastic behavior and one for the heat transfer. With the multiphysics coupling features it is now possible to add the effects of thermal expansion and dissipation or rather selfheating. It provides the possibility to model the temperature dependence of the mechanical material parameters as well. Thus, this model is fully coupled.

The big advantage of the used formulation and implementation in COMSOL is the flexibility for the user. Users could add only the couplings being interesting for the specific problem.