Analysis of creep deformation and creep damage in thin-walled branched shells from materials with different behavior in tension and compression

A constitutive model for describing the creep and creep damage in initially isotropic materials with different properties in tension and compression has been applied to the modeling of creep deformation and creep damage growth in thin-walled shells of revolution with the branched meridian. The approach of establishing the basic equations for axisymmetrically loaded branched shells under creep deformation and creep damage conditions has been introduced. To solve the initial/boundary-value problem, the fourth-order Runge–Kutta–Merson’s method of time integration with the combination of the numerically stable Godunov’s method of discrete orthogonalization is used. The solution of the boundary value problem for the branched shell at each time instant is reduced to integration of the series of systems of ordinary differential equations describing the deformation of each branch and the shell with basic meridian. Some numerical examples are considered, and the processes of creep deformation and creep damage growth in a shell with non-branched meridian as well as in a branched shell are analyzed. The influence of the tension–compression asymmetry on the stress–strain state and damage evolution in a shell with non-branched meridian as well as in a branched shell with time are discussed.