Numerical modelling of non-linear, elasto-plastic material behaviour
Looking aesthetically at design developments in high street consumer goods such as mobile phones, cameras and MP3 players, there has been an obvious trend towards reduction in size. Industrial customers have been equally demanding, not surprisingly given the substantial potential savings to be made.
The reduction in size of microelectronic components has resulted in soldered joint size becoming a considerable design limitation. The challenge is to safely reduce the solder joint size whilst maintaining reliability (bearing in mind external loading (impact, vibration) and system dependencies (thermal/creep)).
By using modern numerical methods it is possible to attempt to accurately define these effects, thus allowing more efficient designs to be produced safely.
In this project I will use Abaqus FE software to model relevant mechanical properties of solder material and solder joints. I will attempt to verify the model with data from a concurrent experimental PhD study.