Modelling of the thermomechanical behaviour of coated structures using single and multi-level-set techniques coupled with the eXtended Finite Element Method

The rapid evolution of manufacturing processes in many industrial sectors have largely highlighted the limitation of analytical and numerical modelling of heterogeneous structures integrating thin layers (joints, brazing, bonding coating). The present work proposes a multi-scale modelling of thin films applied to the problem of the thermomechanical behaviour of coated tools during machining operations. The approach relies on coupling X-FEM with the level-set functions within locally enriched elements and containing the coatings. The ability of the proposed numerical scheme is validated by solving 2D transient thermomechanical problems. The first obtained results show the effectiveness of the approach in terms of convergence and computational time, without any mesh refinement as required by the classic FEM approach. These results were systematically compared to the classical finite elements solution and experimental results. A parametric study about the number of Gauss points was leaded to evaluate its impact. The originality of this work is given with the specific application of thin layers and their thermomechanical behaviour such as coating, brazing, gluing, etc.