Discussion on electromagnetic crack face boundary conditions for the fracture mechanics of magneto-electro-elastic materials

This paper discusses electromagnetic boundary conditions on crack faces in magneto- electroelastic materials, where piezoelectric, piezomagnetic and magnetoelectric effects are coupled. A notch of finite thickness in these materials is also addressed. Four idealized electromagnetic boundary conditions assumed for the crack-faces are separately investigated, i.e. (a) electrically and magnetically impermeable (crack-face), (b) electrically impermeable and magnetically permeable, (c) electrically permeable and magnetically impermeable, and (d) electrically and magnetically permeable. The influence of the notch thickness on important parameters, such as the field intensity factors, the energy release rate at the notch tips and the electromagnetic fields inside the notch, are studied and the results are obtained in closed-form. Results under different idealized electromagnetic boundary conditions on the crack-face are compared, and the applicability of these idealized assumptions is discussed.The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10102004) The English text was polished by Yunming Chen.     

On the energy release rate in quasi-static elastic crack propagation

This paper presents a rigorous derivation of several results concerning the energy release rate for a sharp crack in a homogeneous hyperelastic body.     

THE BOUNDARY INTEGRAL-VARIATIONAL THEOREMS OF AN ARBITRARY ELEMENT IN THE SOLID—COMPUTE THE ENERGY RELEASE RATE OF AN ARBITRARY CRACK EXTENSION

Based on the solid mechanics of the discrete form and its variational principles proposed by Niu^[1–2], this paper puts forward four kinds of boundary integral-variational theorems of an arbitrary element. In the course of the fracture analysis, they can be used to compute the energy release rate along the normal direction of the crack boundary. When there is a hole in the solid, and whether there are given surface forces on the hole boundary or not they can be used to compute the variation of the energy along the normal direction of the hole boundary. In the course of the discrete analysis, they can be used to establish the discrete equations, so that the values of the unknown functions are solved. At the same time, from this paper we know that the J-integral proposed by Rice^[3] represents an integral to be independent of a path imperfectly.     

Phase-field modeling of crack propagation in piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials with different electromechanical crack conditions

We present a family of phase-field models for fracture in piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials. These models couple a variational formulation of brittle fracture with, respectively, (1) the linear theory of piezoelectricity, and (2) a Ginzburg–Landau model of the ferroelectric microstructure to address the full complexity of the fracture phenomenon in these materials. In these models, both the cracks and the ferroelectric domain walls are represented in a diffuse way by phase-fields. The main challenge addressed here is encoding various electromechanical crack models (introduced as crack-face boundary conditions in sharp models) into the phase-field framework. The proposed models are verified through comparisons with the corresponding sharp-crack models. We also perform two dimensional finite element simulations to demonstrate the effect of the different crack-face conditions, the electromechanical loading and the media filling the crack gap on the crack propagation and the microstructure evolution. Salient features of the results are compared with experiments.     

Remarks on the energy release rate for an antiplane moving crack in couple stress elasticity

This paper is concerned with the steady-state propagation of an antiplane semi-infinite crack in couple stress elastic materials. A distributed loading applied at the crack faces and moving with the same velocity of the crack tip is considered, and the influence of the loading profile variations and microstructural effects on the dynamic energy release rate is investigated. The behavior of both energy release rate and maximum total shear stress when the crack tip speed approaches the critical speed (either that of the shear waves or that of the localized surface waves) is studied. The limit case corresponding to vanishing characteristic scale lengths is addressed both numerically and analytically by means of a comparison with classical elasticity results.     

Applicability of the crack faces thermoelectric boundary conditions for thermopiezoelectric materials

The applicability and effect of the crack surfaces thermoelectric boundary conditions in thermopiezoelectric fracture mechanics problem are discussed by using the finite thickness notch approach. The stress and electric displacement intensity factors at the notch tips, and thermal flux and electric displacement inside the notch are derived in closed-form. The numerical results are compared with the ideal crack solutions. It is found that the electrically impermeable crack boundary condition assumption is reasonable if the flaw in the material is a notch with finite width, and the thermal conductivity of air or vacuum inside the crack must be considered.     

Crack energy density in arbitrary direction for piezoelectrics and its characteristic features in electromechanical mixed mode crack

The concepts of crack energy density (CED) and its derivatives in arbitrary direction were established for piezoelectric material and, keeping their application to mixed mode fracture in mind, the characteristic features of them as fracture parameters were investigated based on the approximate equations for CED and its derivatives. That is, CED and its derivatives in arbitrary direction are defined first and separation into their each mode contribution is made. Subsequently, path independent integral expressions of them are derived, and then using them, approximate equations of each mode contribution of CED are obtained concretely for the case where linear singular solution is known. The resulting equations are then used to investigate the effects of electric field and electrical boundary condition on CED and its derivatives. An infinite piezoelectric plane with a crack inclined with respect to the poling direction is considered as a numerical example. Mode I contribution of mechanical CED is mainly employed as a possible fracture parameter for the study and it was shown that applied electric field significantly influences on fracture parameters especially for the impermeable crack perpendicular to the poling direction. The effect of electric field has the tendency to decrease as crack inclination angle increases. It was also found that, even for the impermeable crack perpendicular to the poling direction, crack propagation could be deviated from self-similar direction under a strong negative electric field, and this fact is qualitatively consistent with an existing experimental observation. For the ideally sharp crack with no width, impermeable and Hao and Shen type boundary conditions are admissible showing qualitative agreement with experimental results, but exact boundary condition is not suitable and finally consistent with permeable boundary condition.     

Strain energy density criteria for dynamic fracture and dynamic crack branching

Dynamic extension of Sih's fracture criterion based on strain energy density factor, r_c (dW/dV), is used to analyze dynamic crack propagation and branching. Influence of the nonsingular components, which are known as the higher order terms (HOT) in the crack tip stress field, on the strain energy density distribution at a critical distance surrounding the crack tip moving at constant crack velocity is examined. This r_c (dW/dV) fracture criterion is then used to analyze available dynamic photoelastic results of crack branching and of engineering materials.     

Measurement of energy release rates for delaminations in composite materials

Conventional measurements of energy release rates,G _I andG _II, for delaminations in composite materials, generally utilize loads, crack lengths and simple standard specimen geometries. In this work, a more widely applicable measurement method, using phase shifting moiré and the J integral, is presented. The experimental technique described requires only fringe-pattern information and the elastic constants for the measurements—thus it can be used when the standard methods are inapplicable. Using conventional double-cantilever beam and end-notched flexure specimens, the energy release rate has been measured simultaneously by the moiré method and the standard methods, with good agreement found between the two. This development will for the first time permit the experimental validation of new finite-element routines as they are developed.Paper was presented at the 1993 SEM Spring Conference on Experimental Mechanics held in Dearborn, MI on June 7–9.     

Cluster variation method for determining the energy of slip-induced anti-phase boundary in BCC alloys

The cluster variation method formalism in the irregular tetrahedron approximation has been applied to the determination of the anti-phase boundary (APB) energies of anti-phases generated by the slip of multiple dislocations on a single plane in BCC alloys. The formalism has been applied to BCC Fe–Al alloys and compared with experimental results in the same system. The results shows that in the short-range ordered (SRO) state, most of the resistance to dislocation motion is felt by the first moving dislocation, which characterises slip-plane softening. For the long-range ordered (LRO) state the calculation justifies the formation of superdislocation configuration as experimentally observed in the phases at room temperature deformation. The results have been discussed in connection with the experimentally observed deformation modes of BCC Fe–Al alloys.     

On the boundary conditions for differential turbulence models

The distinctive features of the formulation of boundary conditions at the outer edge of a boundary layer and near a wall are considered. Approximate wall functions of turbulence parameters are proposed for three turbulence models.     

On critical assessment of the use of local and nonlocal damage models for prediction of ductile crack growth and crack path in various loading and boundary conditions

In this work, we have assessed the results of the local and nonlocal versions of Rousselier’s damage model, which have been used here for simulation of ductile crack growth. There are several issues regarding the accuracy of the results which has been addressed in this paper, e.g., accuracy in simulation of crack path, extent and width of the damaged region, fracture resistance behaviour in situations such as symmetric vs. non-symmetric boundary-value problems, mixed-mode loading vs. mode-I loading of the crack-tip, etc. It was also observed that the shape and orientation of the elements at the crack-tip, in addition to their size, influence the results of the local damage model. In this work, it was shown that the above issues can be resolved through the use of nonlocal damage models. The predictions of the nonlocal model are also consistent with the experimental observations unlike its local counterpart. Several examples were presented, where the results as obtained by both the local and nonlocal models were compared. From this experience, it is recommended that the local damage models should not be used blindly by the analysts for all kinds of mesh design, loading, boundary conditions, etc.     

Balance laws and energy release rates for cracks in dipolar gradient elasticity

It is the purpose of this work to derive the balance laws (in the Günther–Knowles–Sternberg sense) pertaining to dipolar gradient elasticity. The theory of dipolar gradient (or grade 2) elasticity derives from considerations of microstructure in elastic continua [Mindlin, R.D., 1964. Microstructure in linear elasticity. Arch. Rational Mech. Anal. 16, 51–78] and is appropriate to model materials with periodic structure. According to this theory, the strain–energy density assumes the form of a positive-definite function of the strain (as in classical elasticity) and the gradient of both strain and rotation (additional terms). The balance laws are derived here through a more straightforward procedure than the one usually employed in classical elasticity (i.e. Noether’s theorem). Indeed, the pertinent balance laws are obtained through the action of the standard operators of vector calculus (grad, curl and div) on appropriate forms of the Hamiltonian of the system under consideration. These laws are directly related to the energy release rates in the processes of crack translation, rotation and self-similar expansion. Under certain conditions, they are identified with conservation laws and path-independent integrals are obtained.     

Shape of a plane hydraulic fracture crack in an elastic impermeable medium at various injection rates

Using a representation of the solutions for the shape of the hydraulic fracture crack opening and the pressure distribution along the crack in the form of a series expansion in Tchebychev polynomials of the second kind, a technique of finding the expansion coefficients is proposed and the curves for crack opening shape and pressure distribution are constructed at various injection rates. This enables one to clarify the dependence of the crack shape on the injection rate.     

Applicability of the crack-face electromagnetic boundary conditions for fracture of magnetoelectroelastic materials

This paper discusses the different electromagnetic boundary conditions on the crack-faces in magnetoelectroelastic materials, which possess coupled piezoelectric, piezomagnetic and magnetoelectric effects. A notch of finite thickness in these materials containing air (or vacuum) is also addressed. Four ideal crack-face electromagnetic boundary condition assumptions, that is, (a) electrically and magnetically impermeable crack, (b) electrically impermeable and magnetically permeable crack, (c) electrically permeable and magnetically impermeable crack and (d) electrically and magnetically permeable crack, are investigated separately. The influence of notch thickness on the field intensity factors at notch tips and the electromagnetic field inside the notch are obtained in closed-form. The results are compared with the ideal crack solutions. Applicability of crack-face electromagnetic boundary condition assumptions is discussed.     

关于瑞利-李兹方法边界条件的讨论

 在应用瑞利-李兹方法时, 一般教材仅提及假设的挠曲线应满足位移边界条件(挠度$y$与转角$\d y/\d x$), 而没有强调另外两个边界条件$\d^{2}y/\d x^{2}$及$\d^{3}y/\d x^{3}$的重要性. 这两个边界条件经胡克定律可与弯矩及剪力关联起来, 称为力边界条件. 通过例子指出当力边界条件不满足时, 可能造成误差很大. 亦对两个力边界条件的相对重要性作了扼要的讨论.     

On pressure boundary conditions for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations

The pressure is a somewhat mysterious quantity in incompressible flows. It is not a thermodynamic variable as there is no ‘equation of state’ for an incompressible fluid. It is in one sense a mathematical artefact—a Lagrange multiplier that constrains the velocity field to remain divergence-free; i.e., incompressible—yet its gradient is a relevant physical quantity: a force per unit volume. It propagates at infinite speed in order to keep the flow always and everywhere incompressible; i.e., it is always in equilibrium with a time-varying divergence-free velocity field. It is also often difficult and/or expensive to compute. While the pressure is perfectly well-defined (at least up to an arbitrary additive constant) by the governing equations describing the conservation of mass and momentum, it is (ironically) less so when more directly expressed in terms of a Poisson equation that is both derivable from the original conservation equations and used (or misused) to replace the mass conservation equation. This is because in this latter form it is also necessary to address directly the subject of pressure boundary conditions, whose proper specification is crucial (in many ways) and forms the basis of this work. Herein we show that the same principles of mass and momentum conservation, combined with a continuity argument, lead to the correct boundary conditions for the pressure Poisson equation: viz., a Neumann condition that is derived simply by applying the normal component of the momentum equation at the boundary. It usually follows, but is not so crucial, that the tangential momentum equation is also satisfied at the boundary.