Mechanical interaction between spherical inhomogeneities: an assessment of a method based on the equivalent inclusion

This paper assesses the ability of the Equivalent Inclusion Method (EIM) with third order truncated Taylor series (Moschovidis and Mura, 1975) to describe the stress distributions of interacting inhomogeneities. The cases considered are two identical spherical voids and glass or rubber inhomogeneities in an infinite elastic matrix. Results are compared with those obtained using spherical dipolar coordinates, which are assumed to be exact, and by a Finite Element Analysis. The EIM gives better results for voids than for inhomogeneities stiffer than the matrix. In the case of rubber inhomogeneities, while the EIM gives accurate values of the hydrostatic pressure inside the rubber, the stress concentrations are inaccurate at very small neighbouring distances for all stiffnesses. A parameter based on the residual stress discontinuity at the interface is proposed to evaluate the quality of the solution given by the EIM. Finally, for inhomogeneities stiffer than the matrix, the method is found to diverge for expansions in Taylor series truncated at the third order.     

Elastic interaction of spherical nanoinhomogeneities with Gurtin-Murdoch type interfaces

A complete solution has been obtained for the problem of multiple interacting spherical inhomogeneities with a Gurtin-Murdoch interface model that includes both surface tension and surface stiffness effects. For this purpose, a vectorial spherical harmonics-based analytical technique is developed. This technique enables solution of a wide class of elasticity problems in domains with spherical boundaries/interfaces and makes fulfilling the vectorial boundary or interface conditions a routine procedure. A general displacement solution of the single-inhomogeneity problem is sought in a form of a series of the vectorial solutions of the Lame equation. This solution is valid for any non-uniform far-field load and it has a closed form for polynomial loads. The superposition principle and re-expansion formulas for the vectorial solutions of the Lame equation extend this theory to problems involving multiple inhomogeneities. The developed semi-analytical technique precisely accounts for the interactions between the nanoinhomogeneities and constitutes an efficient computational tool for modeling nanocomposites. Numerical results demonstrate the accuracy and numerical efficiency of the approach and show the nature and extent to which the elastic interactions between the nanoinhomogeneities with interface stress affect the elastic fields around them.     

Spectral equivalent inclusion method: Anisotropic cylindrical multi-inhomogeneities

Consider a set of nested infinitely extended elastic cylindrical bodies possessing general cylindrical anisotropy embedded in an unbounded elastic isotropic medium. For general far-field loading, the nature of the elastic fields inside the inhomogeneities is predicted and a number of pertinent attractive properties is noted and proved. Moreover, the associated equivalent inclusion method (EIM) is concisely formulated. The concepts of the homogenization, spectral consistency conditions, and the so-called Eshelby-Fourier tensor are introduced. As a result the tedious and lengthy algebra encountered in the conventional EIM is circumvented and the corresponding large number of unknowns is reduced remarkably. Interestingly, the proposed theory is proved useful in the study of inhomogeneities with coatings made of functionally graded material (FGM). In addition to the relevance of the present work to multiple coated fiber reinforced composites, it is also of great value in the study of multi-shell quantum wire in electronic devices. The robustness and efficacy of the presented theories are demonstrated through consideration of several boundary value problems and various types of materials.     

磁电热弹耦合材料三维多裂纹超奇异积分法

用超奇异积分方程法将多场耦合载荷作用下磁电热弹耦合材料内含任意形状和位置三维多裂纹问题转化为求解一以广义位移间断为未知函数的超奇异积分方程组问题,退化得到内含任意形状平行三维多裂纹问题的超奇异积分方程组;推导出平行三维多裂纹问题的裂纹前沿广义奇异应力场解析表达式、定义了广义(应力、应变能)强度因子和广义能量释放率;应用有限部积分概念及体积力法,为超奇异积分方程组建立了数值求解方法,编制了FORTRAN程序,以平行双裂纹为例,通过典型算例,研究了广义(应力、应变能)强度因子随裂纹位置、裂纹形状及材料参数变化规律,得到裂纹断裂评定准则. 最后,分析了裂纹间干扰、屏蔽作用及其在工程实际中的应用.      

Size effect on cracked functional composite micro-plates by an XIGA-based effective approach

Failure of structures and their components is one of major problems in engineering. Studies on mechanical behavior of functionally graded (FG) microplates with defects or cracks by effective numerical methods are rarely reported in literature. In this paper, an effective numerical model is derived based on extended isogeometric analysis (XIGA) for assessment of vibration and buckling of FG microplates with cracks. Based on the modified couple stress theory, the non-classical theory of Reissner–Mindlin plate is extended to capture microstructure, and thus, the size effect. In such theory, possessing C¹-continuity is straightforward with the high-order continuity of non-uniform rational B-spline. Due to the use of enrichments in XIGA, crack geometry is independent of the computational mesh. Numerical examples are performed to illustrate the effects of microplate aspect ratio, crack length, internal material length scale parameter, material distribution, and boundary condition on the mechanical responses of cracked FG microplates. The obtained results are compared with reference solutions and that shows that the frequency and buckling loads increases with decreasing the size of FG microplates and crack length. The convergence of the present method is also studied.     

The second Eshelby problem and its solvability

It is still a challenge to clarify the dependence of overall elastic properties of heterogeneous materials on the microstructures of non-elliposodal inhomogeneities (cracks, pores, foreign particles). From the theory of elasticity, the formulation of the perturbance elastic fields, coming from a non-ellipsoidal inhomogeneity embedded in an infinitely extended material with remote constant loading, inevitably involve one or more integral equations. Up to now, due to the mathematical difficulty, there is almost no explicit analytical solution obtained except for the ellipsoidal inhomogeneity. In this paper, we point out the impossibility to transform this inhomogeneity problem into a conventional Eshelby problem by the equivalent inclusion method even if the eigenstrain is chosen to be non-uniform. We also build up an equivalent model, called the second Eshelby problem, to investigate the perturbance stress. It is probably a better template to make use of the profound methods and results of conventional Eshelby problems of non-ellipsoidal inclusions.     

Elastic fields of interacting elliptic inhomogeneities

This paper presents a method for the calculation of two-dimensional elastic fields in a solid containing any number of inhomogeneities under arbitrary far field loadings. The method called pseudo-dislocations method, is illustrated for the solution of interacting elliptic inhomogeneities. It reduces the interacting inhomogeneities problem to a set of linear algebraic equations. Numerical results are presented for a variety of elliptic inhomogeneity arrangements, including the special cases of elliptic holes, cracks and circular inhomogeneities. All these complicated problems can be solved with high accuracy and efficiency.     

A variational form of the equivalent inclusion method for numerical homogenization

Due to its relatively low computational cost, the equivalent inclusion method is an attractive alternative to traditional full-field computations of heterogeneous materials formed of simple inhomogeneities (spherical, ellipsoidal) embedded in a homogeneous matrix. The method can be seen as the discretization of the Lippmann–Schwinger equation with piecewise polynomials. Contrary to the original approach of Moschovidis and Mura, who discretized the strong form of the Lippmann–Schwinger equation through Taylor expansions, we propose in the present paper a Galerkin discretization of the weak form of this equation. Combined with the new, mixed boundary conditions recently introduced by the authors, the resulting method is particularly well-suited to homogenization. It is shown that this new, variational approach has a number of benefits: (i) the resulting linear system is well-posed, (ii) the numerical solution converges to the exact solution as the maximum degree of the polynomials tends to infinity and (iii) the method can provide rigorous bounds on the apparent properties of the statistical volume element, provided that the matrix is stiffer (or softer) than all inhomogeneities. This paper presents the formulation and implementation of the new, variational form of the equivalent inclusion method. Its efficiency is investigated through numerical applications in 2D and 3D elasticity.     

Boundary layers in highly anisotropic plane elasticity

The boundary layer method proposed by Everstine and Pipkin for the analysis of highly anisotropic materials, such as fibre-reinforced materials, in elastic plane strain is developed and extended also to include plane stress. It is applied to problems of point forces acting on half-planes, and to two crack problems. The boundary layer solutions are compared with known exact solutions in anisotropic elasticity, and it is found that the boundary layer theory gives good results for elastic constants typical of a carbon fibre reinforced resin.     

Interacting micro-cracks near the tip in the process zone of a macro-crack

For a linearly elastic and isotropic solid containing two or more cracks, cavities and other interacting defects of complex geometries, a method called “the method of pseudo-tractions” has been recently proposed by Hori and Nemat-Nasser (1983, 1985a), which can effectively solve two-dimensional problems of this kind, when cracks or cavities with sharp corners are suitably far apart. The method, however, breaks down when a crack or cavity is situated very close to the tip of another crack, which is the case when the process zone at the tip of a crack contains many micro-cracks.In this work, modifications of the method of pseudo-tractions are introduced, which will permit effective calculation of the stress intensity factors when a large crack interacts with small cracks which are situated very close to its tip in its process zone. Explicit asymptotic expressions are obtained for the stress intensity factors of the macro-crack, as well as those of the micro-cracks. It is shown that the presence of the microcracks in the process zone of a macro-crack may induce out-of-plane crack growth even under far-field hydrostatic tension. Several illustrative examples are worked out, including two collinear cracks for which an exact solution exists, arriving at an excellent correlation.     

热电材料孔边周期裂纹问题的热电弹分析

论文研究了均匀电流密度和能量流作用下,热电材料中带4k个周期径向裂纹的圆形孔口问题.考虑非渗透型电和热边界条件,运用复变函数理论和保形映射方法,得到了热电材料中电流密度、能量密度和应力场的精确解.依据断裂力学理论,运用Cauchy积分公式得到了周期裂纹的电流、能量和应力强度因子.数值结果分析了场强度因子随各个参数的变化...     

EXACT SOLUTION FOR ORTHOTROPIC MATERIALS WEAKENED BY DOUBLY PERIODIC CRACKS OF UNEQUAL SIZE UNDER ANTIPLANE SHEAR

Orthotropic materials weakened by a doubly periodic array of cracks under far-field antiplane shear are investigated, where the fundamental cell contains four cracks of unequal size. By applying the mapping technique, the elliptical function theory and the theory of analytical function boundary value problems, a closed form solution of the whole-field stress is obtained. The exact formulae for the stress intensity factor at the crack tip and the effective antiplane shear modulus of the cracked orthotropic material are derived. A comparison with the finite element method shows the efficiency and accuracy of the present method. Several illustrative examples are provided, and an interesting phenomenon is observed, that is, the stress intensity factor and the dimensionless effective modulus are independent of the material property for a doubly periodic cracked isotropic material, but depend strongly on the material property for the doubly periodic cracked orthotropic material. Such a phenomenon for antiplane problems is similar to that for in-plane problems. The present solution can provide benchmark results for other numerical and approximate methods.     

Elastic properties of inhomogeneous transversely isotropic rocks

The problem to determine the effective elastic moduli and velocities of elastic wave propagation in transversely isotropic solid containing aligned spheroidal inhomogeneities (solid grains, vugs and micro-cracks) has been solved using the self-consistent scheme known as effective medium approximation (EMA). Since a solution of so-called one-particle problem is a base for each self-consistent method, we solved this problem as a first step for spheroidal inhomogeneity in a transversely isotropic medium. In contrast to the known solution of this problem by Lin and Mura we obtained the expressions for the strain field inside inclusion in the explicit form (without quadratures). The obtained solution was used then in the symmetric variant of the EMA where each component of the system was considered as spheroid with its own aspect ratio. This approach was applied to simulate the properties of the rocks containing isolated pores and micro-cracks. For connected fluid-filled pores we used the anisotropic variant of the Gassmann theory. The results of the calculations, obtained for the effective elastic moduli, have been compared with the experimental data and theoretical simulations of the other authors. Unlike many other rock mechanics theories, EMA approximation gives correct elastic moduli values even in the nondilute concentration of inhomogeneities. The comparison of the experimental data for oriented crack system with the EMA predictions indicates their good correspondence.     

Problem on circular-arc cracks between bonded dissimilar materials under concentrated force and moment

The method is very efficient by applying extended Schwarz principle integrated with the analysis of the singularity of complex stress functions to solve some plane-elastic problems under concentrated loads, in Ref.[1], this method is used to deal with the elastic problems of homogeneous plane. In this paper, it is extended to the case of dissimilar materials with co-circular cracks under concentrated force and moment. For several typical cases the solutions of complex stress function in closed form are built up and the stress intensity factors are given. From these solutions, we provide a series of particular results, in which two of them coincide with those in Refs. [1] and [6].     

Characterization of strongly interacted multiple cracks in an infinite plate

Based on the Kachanov method and the alternating iteration technique, a new method is proposed to deal with the problem of the strongly interacted multiple cracks in an infinite plate. Unlike the Kachanov method which neglects the interaction of the tractions of the non-uniform components, the tractions of the non-uniform components on the surfaces of cracks are considered through the alternating technique. The accuracy and efficiency of present method are validated by comparing the results of two collinear and two parallel overlapped open the cracks obtained by the present method with those of the exact solutions, the results of the Kachanov method and the alternating iteration technique. Applications of present method in solving sliding close crack problems and evaluating the plastic zones demonstrate the versatility of present method.     

Mixed mode axisymmetric annular cracks in a finite layer: Off angle crack initiation

The solutions of axisymmetric Volterra type climb and glide edge dislocations are obtained in a layer by means of the Hankel transforms. Utilizing the same procedure, Green’s function solution is obtained for a layer under self-equilibration normal ring traction. The distributed dislocation technique is used to construct integral equations for a system of co-axial annular cracks where the layer is under axisymmetric normal loads. These equations are solved numerically to obtain dislocation density on the cracks surfaces. The results are employed to determine stress intensity factors for annular and penny-shaped cracks and the interaction between two co-axial penny-shaped cracks is studied. Moreover, the stress intensity factors of the interacting cracks are determined such that they can be further used in conjunction with strain energy density (SED) failure criterion to obtain the possible direction of crack initiation that may not be apparent under mixed mode conditions.     

Extended Kantorovich method for local stresses in composite laminates upon polynomial stress functions

The extended Kantorovich method is employed to study the local stress concentrations at the vicinity of free edges in symmetrically layered composite laminates subjected to uniaxial tensile load upon polynomial stress functions. The stress fields are initially assumed by means of the Lekhnitskii stress functions under the plane strain state. Applying the principle of complementary virtual work, the coupled ordinary differential equations are obtained in which the solutions can be obtained by solving a generalized eigenvalue problem. Then an iterative procedure is estab-lished to achieve convergent stress distributions. It should be noted that the stress function based extended Kantorovich method can satisfy both the traction-free and free edge stress boundary conditions during the iterative processes. The stress components near the free edges and in the interior regions are calculated and compared with those obtained results by finite element method (FEM). The convergent stresses have good agreements with those results obtained by three dimensional (3D) FEM. For generality, various layup configurations are considered for the numerical analysis. The results show that the proposed polynomial stress function based extended Kan-torovich method is accurate and efficient in predicting the local stresses in composite laminates and computationally much more efficient than the 3D FEM.     

Problems of collinear cracks between bonded dissimilar materials under antiplane concentrated forces

In this paper problems of cullinear cracks between bonded dissimilar materials underantiplane concentrated forces are dealt with.General solutions of the problems areformulated by applying extended Schwarz principle integrated with the analysis of thesingularity of complex stress functions.Closed-form solutions of several typical problemsare obtained and the stress intensity factors are given.These solutions include a series oforiginal results and some results of previous researches.It is found that under symmetricalloads the solutions for the dissimilar materials are the same as those for the homogeneousmaterials.     

用边界元方法分析复合材料中的裂纹问题

利用层状材料的广义Klevin基本解，建立了计算三维层状材料中的裂纹边界元方法。采用边界元方法中的多区域方法和能反映均匀介质中裂纹尖端应力场和位移场特征的面力奇异单元。裂纹的应力强度因子由裂纹面上的位移经插值计算得到。算例分析表明，本文建议的方法可以获得较高的计算精度。     

Boundary-value problems in the theory of lipid membranes

General contact conditions are developed for lipid membranes interacting with curved substrates along their edges. These include the anchoring conditions familiar from liquid-crystal theory and accommodate non-uniform membranes and non-uniform adhesion between a bulk fluid or membrane and a rigid substrate. The theory is illustrated through explicit solutions and numerical simulations.