An Educational Platform in Structural Mechanics

Thermal residual stresses often arise due to a manufacturing process, involving localised thermal induction, or to the existence of structural components with different thermal expansion coefficients. The existence of thermal residual stresses within a structural member is usually undesired, as it decreases the mechanical resistance of structures. Hence, it is desirable to obtain both a minimum level of residual stresses and smoother stresses transitions in the materials interfaces. Regarding the mitigation of thermal residual stress concentration, the use of materials which properties can vary along the component directions has great interest. This work addresses the use of dual-phase functionally graded materials, which microstructure varies gradually from a material to another according to a given gradation function. On the order hand, it is also addressed the use of a population based optimization algorithm in order to attain the referred minimum stress level. Summarizing, the current work presents an educational platform directed to structural mechanics students, which aims to give the tools to understand both the influence of design parameters in the thermal residual stress level and distribution along the material and the advantages of using a structural optimization technique in order to minimize the drawback thermal residual stresses effects