Elastic interaction of partially debonded circular inclusions. II. Application to fibrous composite

A complete analytical solution has been obtained of the elasticity problem for a plane containing periodically distributed, partially debonded circular inclusions, regarded as the representative unit cell model of fibrous composite with interface damage. The displacement solution is written in terms of periodic complex potentials and extends the approach recently developed by Kushch et al. (2010) to the cell type models. By analytical averaging the local strain and stress fields, the exact formulas for the effective transverse elastic moduli have been derived. A series of the test problems have been solved to check an accuracy and numerical efficiency of the method. An effect of interface crack density on the effective elastic moduli of periodic and random structure FRC with interface damage has been evaluated. The developed approach provides a detailed analysis of the progressive debonding phenomenon including the interface cracks cluster formation, overall stiffness reduction and damage-induced anisotropy of the effective elastic moduli of composite.     

Influence of disorder on superconductivity in non-magnetic rare-earth nickel borocarbides

The effect of substitutional disorder on the superconducting properties of YNi₂B₂C was studied by partially replacing yttrium and nickel by Lu and Pt, respectively. For the two series of (Y, Lu)Ni₂B₂C and Y(Ni, Pt)₂B₂C compounds, the upper critical field H _c2(T) and the specific heat c _p(T, H) in the superconducting mixed state have been investigated. Disorder is found to reduce several relevant quantities such as T _c, the upper critical field H _c2(0) at T=0 and a characteristic positive curvature of H _c2(T) observed for these compounds near T _c. The H _c2(T) data point to the clean limit for (Y, Lu) substitutions and to a transition to the quasi-dirty limit for (Ni, Pt) substitutions. The electronic specific heat contribution γ(H) exhibits significant deviations from the usual linear γ(H) law. These deviations reduce with growing substitutional disorder but remain even in the quasidirty limit which is reached in the Y(Ni_1−x , Pt _x )₂B₂C samples for x=0.1.     

Non-resonant microwave absorption studies of superconducting MgB2 and MgB2 + MgO

Non-resonant microwave absorption (NRMA) studies of superconducting MgB₂ and a sample containing ∼10% by weight of MgO in MgB₂ are reported. The NRMA results indicate near absence of intergranular weak links in the pure MgB₂ sample. A linear temperature dependence of the lower critical field H _c1 is observed indicating a non-s wave superconductivity. However, the phase reversal of the NRMA signal which could suggest d wave symmetry is also not observed. In the MgB₂ + MgO sample, much larger low field dependent absorption is observed indicating the presence of intergranular weak links. The hysteretic behavior of NRMA is compared and contrasted in the two samples. In the pure MgB₂ sample, a large hysteresis is observed between the forward and the reverse scans of the magnetic field indicating strong pinning of flux lines. This hysteresis saturates a few degrees below T _c while in the MgB₂ + MgO sample, a much slower increase of hysteresis with decreasing temperature is observed, a signature of weaker pinning.     

Elastic interaction of partially debonded circular inclusions. I. Theoretical solution

A complete solution has been obtained of the elasticity problem for a plane containing a finite array of partially debonded circular inclusions, regarded as the open-crack model of fibrous composite with interface damage. A general displacement solution of the single-inclusion problem has been derived by combining the complex potentials technique with the newly derived series expansions. This solution is valid for any non-uniform far load and is finite and exact in the case of polynomial far field. Applying the superposition principle expands this theory to the multiple inclusion problem and provides a simple and rapidly convergent iterative algorithm. The presented numerical data show an accuracy and numerical efficiency of the proposed method and discover the way and extent to which the elastic interaction between the partially debonded inclusions affects the local fields, stress intensity factors and the energy release rate at the interface crack tips.     

Giant photoplastic effect in vitreous semiconductors near the rigidity percolation transition

The negative giant photoplastic effect (giant photosoftening) has been experimentally observed in the As-Se system when films obtained by thermal evaporation of As₂₀Se₈₀ chalcogenide glass are irradiated by light from the region of the fundamental absorption edge. Correlation has been found between the photoplastic effect and rigidity percolation transition in the As-Se chalcogenide glass matrix. Such a correlation is not revealed when light irradiation changes the optical properties of these glass films. It has been shown that a nonlinear (non-Hookian) mechanism of the formation of the strain response is realized in the films subjected to the combined action of light and external mechanical loading.     

Meso cell model of fiber reinforced composite: Interface stress statistics and debonding paths

The primary goal of this work is to develop an efficient analytical tool for the computer simulation of progressive damage in the fiber reinforced composite (FRC) materials and thus to provide the micro mechanics-based theoretical framework for a deeper insight into fatigue phenomena in them. An accurate solution has been obtained for the micro stress field in a meso cell model of fibrous composite. The developed method combines the superposition principle, Kolosov–Muskhelishvili’s technique of complex potentials and Fourier series expansion. By using the properly chosen periodic potentials, the primary boundary-value problem stated on the multiple-connected domain has been reduced to an ordinary, well-posed set of linear algebraic equations. The meso cell can include up to several hundred inclusions which is sufficient to account for the micro structure statistics of composite. The presented numerical examples demonstrate an accuracy and high numerical efficiency of the method which makes it to be a promising tool for studying progressive damage in FRCs. By averaging over a number of random structure realizations, the statistically meaningful results have been obtained for both the local stress and effective elastic moduli of disordered fibrous composite. A special attention has been paid to the interface stress statistics and the fiber debonding paths development, which appear to correlate well with the experimental observations.