Extended Finite Element Method for hygro-mechanical analysis of crack propagation in porous materials

In computational structural analyses, strong discontinuities, such as propagating cracks in concrete structures, joints in rocks or shear bands in soft soils, the highly accelerated moisture transport in the opening discontinuities has to be taken into account. The paper is concerned with an Extended Finite Element model for the numerical representation of crack propagation in partially saturated porous materials. Based on an extended variational formulation for the simulation of moisture transport in cracks, enhanced approximations of the displacement field and the moisture flux across the discontinuity are adopted. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Three-dimensional exact thermo-elastic analysis of multilayered two-dimensional quasicrystal nanoplates

A three-dimensional thermo-elastic analytical solution for two-dimensional quasicrystal simply supported nanoplates subjected to a temperature change on their top surface is presented. The nonlocal theory and pseudo-Stroh formalism are used to obtain the exact solution for a homogeneous two-dimensional decagonal quasicrystal nanoplate with its thickness direction as a quasi-periodic direction. The propagator matrix method is introduced to deal with the corresponding multilayered nanoplates. Comprehensive numerical results show that nonlocal parameters, stress-temperature coefficients, stacking sequences have great influence on the stress, displacement components and heat fluxes of the nanoplates. In addition, the stacking sequences also influence the temperature and heat fluxes of the nanoplate. The exact thermo-elastic solution should be of interest to the design of the two-dimensional quasicrystal homogeneous and multilayered plates. The mechanical behaviors of the nanoplates in numerical results can also serve as benchmarks to verify various thin-plate theories or other numerical methods.     

Eigenvalue analysis for a crack in a power-law material

A nonlinear eigenvalue problem related to determining the stress and strain fields near the tip of a transverse crack in a power-law material is studied. The eigenvalues are found by a perturbation method based on representations of an eigenvalue, the corresponding eigenfunction, and the material nonlinearity parameter in the form of series expansions in powers of a small parameter equal to the difference between the eigenvalues in the linear and nonlinear problems. The resulting eigenvalues are compared with the accurate numerical solution of the nonlinear eigenvalue problem.     

Simulation of brittle crack growth in functionally graded materials

We consider a thermodynamic consistent framework for crack propagation by applying a dissipation inequality to a time dependent migrating control volume. The direction of crack growth is obtained in terms of material forces as a result of the principle of maximum dissipation. In the numerical implementation a staggered algorithm – deformation update for fixed geometry followed by geometry update for fixed deformation – is employed within each time increment. The corresponding mesh is generated by combining Delaunay triangulation with local mesh refinement. A numerical example with inhomogeneous material properties illustrates the capability of the resulting algorithm. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Progressive thermal stress distribution around a crack under Joule heating in orthotropic materials

Stress intensity factor and stress distribution at crack tips are classical problems in solids, which are closely related to the failure and reliability of materials. A crack in a nonlinearly coupled anisotropic medium, on the other hand, is much more difficult to analyze. Using the generalized complex variable method, the thermal stress problem of a crack embedded in an orthotropic medium has been analyzed, and the progressive thermal stress distributions have been obtained in closed-forms. The analysis shows that the thermal stress intensity factors are linear functions of remote thermal flux while are nonlinear functions of remote current; the thermal stress distributions under produced by thermal flux and Joule heating are similar, but not identical; the thermal stress intensity factors are linear functions with respect to the thermal expansion coefficients; with the increase of crack length, the thermal stress intensity factor caused by Joule heat increases rapidly; the thermal stress intensity factors are directly proportional to the temperature difference between the upper and lower crack surfaces and the left and right half crack surfaces divided by the square root of the crack length, and the ratios are only determined by the material parameters. These results provide a powerful tool for the failure and reliability analysis of conductive materials, and suggested that thermal stress analysis may be localized.     

An experimental and computational investigation of crack initiation and stable crack growth of ductile materials

Crack initiation and stable crack growth under monotonic loading in steels has been studied using an elastic-plastic finite element analysis. The fracture criterion used for crack initiation and stable crack growth was the critical strain energy density. In addition the shift core method for the analysis of crack extension was used. In the shift core modelling method, crack advance is simulated by moving the coordinates of the core region which surrounds the crack tip, to obtain the stiffness reduction. Simultaneously the core itself geometrically undergoes a simple rigid-body motion or translation during the crack extension. The analytically calculated and experimentally measured load for crack initiation and the subsequent stable crack growth agreed well.     

A conductive crack and a remote electrode at the interface between two piezoelectric materials

An interaction of a tunnel conductive crack and a distant strip electrode situated at the interface between two piezoelectric semi-infinite spaces is studied. The bimaterial is subject by an in-plane electrical field parallel to the interface and by an anti-plane mechanical loading. Using the presentations of electromechanical quantities at the interface via sectionally-analytic functions the problem is reduced to a combined Dirichlet-Riemann boundary value problem. Solution of this problem is found in an analytical form excepting some one-dimensional integrals calculations. Closed form expressions for the stress, the electric field and their intensity factors, as well as for the crack faces displacement jump are derived. On the base of these presentations the energy release rate is also found. The obtained solution is compared with simple particular case of a single crack without electrode and the excellent agreement is found out. An auxiliary plane problem for open and closed cracks between two isotropic materials is also considered. The mathematical model of this problem is identical to the above one, therefore, the obtained solution is used for this model. It is compared with finite element solution of a similar problem and good agreement is found out.     

Theoretical analysis of three-dimensional interface crack

Using the fundamental solution of interface crack and the method of finite-part integral, the problem of three-dimensional interface crack is reduced to solve a set of two-dimensional hypersingular integrodifferential equations with unknown displacement discontinuities of crack surface. Then a systematically theoretical analysis for solving these equations is presented.     

Utilization of divergent integrals and a new symbolism in contact and crack analysis

The main potential function, used for the complete solutionof the contact and crack problems for elliptical domains, ispresentable as an integral of an expression comprising a logarithmof a distance between two points. These integrals were consideredto be impossible to compute, though various derivatives of theseintegrals were computed in the past. The new symbolism, introducedhere, combined with utilization of divergent integrals, allowsus to compute these integrals exactly and in a closed form.It also introduces a dramatic simplification in the final expressionsand restores some mathematical symmetry and elegance.     

Dynamical Behaviors in a Two-dimensional Map

We consider the dynamics of a two-dimensional map proposed by Maynard Smith as a population model. The existence of chaos in the sense of Marotto‘s theorem is first proved, and the bifurcations of periodic points are studied by analytic methods. The numerical simulations not only show the consistence with the theoretical analysis but also exhibi the complex dynamical behaviors.