Elastic interaction of multiple delaminations in plates subject to cylindrical bending

This paper deals with the elastic interaction of multiple through-width delaminations in laminated plates subject to static out of plane loading and deforming in cylindrical bending. A model has been formulated utilizing the classical theory of the bending of beams and plates and accounting for non-frictional contact along the delamination faces. Strong interaction effects arise between the delaminations including shielding and amplification of the energy release rate and modification of the mode ratio as compared to a structure with only a single delamination. Such behavior has been summarized in maps that completely characterize the response of a system of two delaminations in a cantilever beam. The quasi-static propagation of the system of delaminations is also strongly controlled by the delamination interactions, which lead to local snap-back and snap-through instabilities, crack arrest and crack pull-along. The results show similarity to those for cracked infinite bodies, but the finite-thickness of the plate plays an important role and gives rise to more complex behaviors. The stability of the equality of length of a system of n delaminations is controlled by their spacing. Finite element calculations confirm that the model proposed here is accurate, except when the difference in the length of the interacting delaminations is less than a few times the separation of their planes.     

Brittle fracture dynamics with arbitrary paths. II. Dynamic crack branching under general antiplane loading

The dynamic propagation of a bifurcated crack under antiplane loading is considered. The dependence of the stress intensity factor just after branching is given as a function of the stress intensity factor just before branching, the branching angle and the instantaneous velocity of the crack tip. The jump in the dynamic energy release rate due to the branching process is also computed. Similar to the single crack case, a growth criterion for a branched crack is applied. It is based on the equality between the energy flux into each propagating tip and the surface energy which is added as a result of this propagation. It is shown that the minimum speed of the initial single crack which allows branching is equal to 0.39c, where c is the shear wave speed. At the branching threshold, the corresponding bifurcated cracks start their propagation at a vanishing speed with a branching angle of approximately 40°.     

Element-failure concepts for dynamic fracture and delamination in low-velocity impact of composites

An element-failure algorithm is proposed and incorporated into a finite element code for simulating dynamic crack propagation and impact damage in laminated composite materials. In this algorithm, when a crack is propagating within a finite element, the element is deemed to have partially failed, but not removed from the computations. Consequently, only a fraction of the stresses that were computed before the crack tip entered the element contribute to the nodal forces of the element. When the crack has propagated through the element, the element is completely failed and therefore can only resist volumetric compression. This treatment of crack propagation in isotropic solids allows fracture paths within individual elements and is able to accommodate crack growth in any arbitrary direction without the need for remeshing. However, this concept is especially powerful when extended to the modeling of damage and delamination in fibre-reinforced composite laminates. This is because the nature of damage in composite laminates is generally diffused, characterized by multiple matrix cracks, fibre pullout, fibre breakage and delaminations. It is usually not possible to define or identify crack tips in the tradition of fracture mechanics. Since parts of a damaged composite structure are often able to partially transmit load despite the presence of some damage, it is advantageous to model the damaged portions with partially failed elements. The damage may be efficiently modeled and tracked using element-failure concepts, with the application of appropriate failure criteria and damage evolution laws. The idea is to embody the effects of damage into the effective nodal forces of the finite element. In this paper, we report the novel use of element-failure concepts in the analysis of low-velocity impact damage of composite laminates. The initiation and propagation of delaminations arising from the impact are predicted and the results show qualitative agreement with experimental observation of the formation of multiple delaminations in impact-damaged specimens. While such delaminations do not permit transmission of tensile stress waves across the cracked surfaces, transmission of compressive stress waves are allowed in the simulation. It is further shown that, when elements are allowed to fail, the dynamic stress wave distributions are altered significantly. In the element-failure algorithm, the issue of interpenetration of delamination surfaces in the model does not arise. This is a significant advantage over the conventional method of explicitly modeling the delamination surfaces and crack front, where generally, much computational time must be spent in employing contact algorithms to ensure physically admissible solutions. Finally, we also demonstrate the simulation of crack propagation of pre-notched specimens of an isotropic material under initial conditions of mode II loading using the element-failure algorithm. The numerical results showed that the cracks propagated at an angle of about 70° with respect to the notches, in agreement with the experimental results of Kalthoff.     

Interaction effects of multiple damage mechanisms in composite sandwich beams subject to time dependent loading

Theoretical models are formulated to explain evolution and interaction of the damage mechanisms for multiple delamination of the face-sheet and core crushing in composite sandwich beams subjected to dynamically applied out-of-plane loading and continuously supported by rigid planes. The models are based on simplified one-dimensional formulations and describe the impacted face of the sandwich as a set of Timoshenko beams joined by cohesive interfaces and resting on a nonlinear Winkler foundation, which approximates the response of the core; the dimensionless formulation highlights the material/structure groups that control the mechanical response. The characteristic features of the problem and transitions in damage progression are explored on varying geometrical parameters and material properties and magnitude and duration of the applied load. For quasi-static loading and low velocity impact, core/face-sheet interactions generate energy barriers to the propagation of delaminations; the efficacy of the barriers in controlling damage in the face-sheets depends on the relative stiffnesses of face-sheet and core and on the foundation yielding strength. For dynamic loading conditions, significant dynamic effects arise in certain regimes and cause substantial changes in behavior: shielding of the crack tip stress fields provided by the foundation is reduced, especially after the load is removed when important delamination openings occur; core plasticity generally opposes this behavior and limits damage in the face-sheet.     

Brittle fracture dynamics with arbitrary paths III. The branching instability under general loading

The dynamic propagation of a bifurcated crack under arbitrary loading is studied. Under plane loading configurations, it is shown that the model problem of the determination of the dynamic stress intensity factors after branching is similar to the anti-plane crack branching problem. By analogy with the exact results of the mode III case, the energy release rate immediately after branching under plane situations is expected to be maximized when the branches start to propagate quasi-statically. Therefore, the branching of a single propagating crack under mode I loading should be energetically possible when its speed exceeds a threshold value. The critical velocity for branching of the initial single crack depends only weakly on the criterion applied for selecting the paths followed by the branches. However, the principle of local symmetry imposes a branching angle which is larger than the one given by the maximum energy release rate criterion. Finally, it is shown that an increasing fracture energy with the velocity results in a decrease in the critical velocity at which branching is energetically possible.     

Dynamic fracture behaviors of cracks in a functionally graded magneto-electro-elastic plate

In this paper the dynamic anti-plane problem for a functionally graded magneto-electro-elastic plate containing an internal or an edge crack parallel to the graded direction is investigated. The crack is assumed to be magneto-electrically impermeable. Integral transforms and dislocation density functions are employed to reduce the problem to Cauchy singular integral equations. Field intensity factors and energy release rate are derived, analyzed and partially calculated numerically. The effects of material graded index, loading combination parameter (including size and direction) and geometry criterion of the plate on the dynamic energy release rate are shown graphically. Numerical results indicate that increasing the graded index can all retard the crack extension, and that both the applied magnetic field loadings and electric field loadings play a dominant role in the dynamic fracture behaviors of crack tips.     

Dynamic crack propagation in a magneto-electro-elastic solid subjected to mixed loads: Transient Mode-III problem

The transient response of a Mode-III crack propagating in a magneto-electro-elastic solid subjected to mixed loads is investigated through solving the corresponding boundary-initial-value problem in both the cracked solid region and the interior fluid region with treatment of electro-magnetically permeable and impermeable crack face conditions in a unified way. The closed-form results for the dynamic field intensity factors are used to evaluate the dynamic energy release rate through the crack-tip dynamic contour integral. The permeability of the interior fluid region relative to the cracked solid region significantly affects the magneto-electro-mechanical coupling coefficient in the Bleustein–Gulyaev wave function and, consequently, the horizontal shear surface wave speed, the dynamic field intensity factors and the dynamic energy release rate. It is revealed from dynamic fracture mechanics analysis that the dynamic energy release rate thus obtained has an odd dependence on the dynamic electric displacement intensity factor and the dynamic magnetic induction intensity factor. It is also found that the horizontal shear surface wave speed provides the limiting velocity for the propagation of a Mode-III crack in a magneto-electro-elastic solid when there is only applied traction loading.     

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.     

Transient response of a rectangular piezoelectric medium with a center crack

The dynamic field intensity factors and energy release rates in a rectangular piezoelectric ceramic medium containing a center crack are obtained for boundary conditions of a permeable and an impermeable crack under electro-mechanical impact loading. An integral transform method is used to reduce the problem to two pairs of dual integral equations, which are then expressed as Fredholm integral equations of the second kind. Numerical values on the dynamic energy release rate are obtained to show the dependences upon the geometry and electric field.     

冲击载荷下扩展裂纹尖端动态能量释放率分布的焦散线分析

借助高速摄影捕捉裂纹瞬态扩展过程，利用动态焦散线研究了含有裂纹的三点弯曲梁在冲击载荷作用下扩展裂纹尖端的动态能量释放率分布规律；综合分析了裂纹扩展时间、长度、速度，以及扩展裂纹尖端动态应力强度因子与它的变化关系，表明了动态能量释放率在裂纹扩展过程中的驱动作用。     

Closed form solution for two unequal collinear semi-permeable straight cracks in a piezoelectric media

The problem of two unequal collinear straight cracks weakening a poled transversely isotropic piezoelectric ceramic is addressed under semi-permeable electric boundary conditions on the crack faces. The plate has been subjected to combined in-plane normal(to the faces of the cracks) mechanical and electric loads. Problem is formulated employing Stroh formalism and solved using complex variable technique. The elastic field, electric field and energy release rate are obtained in closed analytic form. A case study is presented for poled PZT-5H cracked plate to study the effect of prescribed mechanical load, electric load, inter-crack distance and crack lengths on crack arrest parameters stress intensity factor (SIF), electric displacement intensity factor (EDIF) and mechanical and total energy release rates (ERR). Moreover a comparative study is done of impermeable and semi-permeable crack face boundary conditions on SIF, EDIF and ERR, and results obtained is presented graphically. It is observed that the effect of dielectric medium in the crack gap cannot be ignored.     

Dynamic analysis of composite plate with multiple delaminations based on higher-order zigzag theory

In a recent paper, Cho and Kim [Journal of Applied Mechanics] proposed a higher-order cubic zigzag theory of laminated composites with multiple delaminations. The proposed theory is not only accurate but also efficient because it work with a minimal number of degrees of freedom with the application of interface continuity conditions as well as bounding surface conditions of transverse shear stresses including delaminated interfaces. In this work, we investigate the dynamic behavior of laminated composite plates with multiple delaminations. A four-node finite element based on the efficient higher-order zigzag plate theory of laminated composite plates with multiple delaminations is developed to refine the prediction of frequencies, mode shape, and time response. Through the dynamic version of the variational approach, the dynamic equilibrium equations and variationally consistent boundary conditions are obtained. Natural frequency prediction and time response analysis of a composite plate with multiple delaminations demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the present finite element method. To prevent penetration violation at the delamination interfaces, unilateral contact constraints by Lagrange multiplier method are applied in the time response analysis. The present finite element is suitable for the prediction of dynamic response of thick composite plates with multiple and arbitrary shaped delaminations.     

Multiple parallel cracks interaction problem inpiezoelectric ceramics

This paper has two goals. First, we propose the pseudo-traction–electric displacementmethod for solving the interaction problem of multiple parallel cracks in transversely isotropicpiezoelectric ceramics. Second, we present a fundamental understanding for the role that theelectric displacement loading plays in the interaction problem. Detailed comparisons between theresults under the compound mechanical–electric loading conditions and those derived underpurely mechanical loading conditions are performed. It is shown that the mechanical fractureparameters such as the stress intensity factors are no longer independent of the electric loading asthey would be in single crack problems. Quite contrary, the electric displacement loading has asignificant influence on the stress intensity factors, the total potential energy release rate and themechanical strain energy release rate. This important conclusion is mainly due to the interactioneffect, i.e., one of the multiple cracks releases the stresses and disturbs the electric fields near theother crack. It is also found that there are some special relative locations for the multiple parallelcracks at which the electric displacement loading has no effect on the Mode I stress intensityfactor. However, the mechanical strain energy release rate has no such a property.     

Transient response of an interfacial crack between dissimilar magnetoelectroelastic layers under magnetoelectromechanical impact loadings: Mode-I problem

The dynamic response of an interfacial crack between two dissimilar magnetoelectroelastic layers is investigated under magnetic, electrical and mechanical impact loadings. Four kinds of ideal crack-face assumptions, i.e., magnetoelectrically impermeable (Case 1), magnetically impermeable and electrically permeable (Case 2), magnetically permeable and electrically impermeable (Case 3) and magnetoelectrically permeable (Case 4), are adopted separately. The dynamic field intensity factors and energy release rates are derived. The effects of loading combinations and crack configurations especially for the former on the dynamic response are examined according to energy release rate criterion. The numerical results show that, among others, a negative magnetic (or electrical) loading is generally prone to inhibit the crack extension rather than a positive one for a magnetically (or electrically) impermeable interfacial crack. Results presented in this paper should have potential applications to the design of multilayered magnetoelectroelastic structures.     

压电材料反平面运动裂纹的能量释放率与分叉角

用复变函数方法,研究了压电材料中反平面运动裂纹的动态断裂问题,研究表明：介质内的耦合场与裂纹运动速度有关,在裂纹尖端有奇异。应力强度因子与裂纹运动速度无关,与纯弹性结构一致,沿裂纹延长线扩展的动态能量释放率可用应力强度因子表示,而与电载荷无关,裂纹运动的高速度具有止裂作用,在一定条件下,裂纹有扩展成曲线裂纹或分叉的趋势。     

On the crack face boundary conditions in electromechanical fracture and an experimental protocol for determining energy release rates

The fracture mechanics of electromechanical materials has been investigated for well over a decade, yet there still exists controversy over the appropriate crack face boundary conditions for non-conducting cracks. In this paper an experimental protocol for measuring the energy release rate in a non-linear reversible electromechanical body is proposed and summarized. The potential results from the proposed experimental approach are capable of shedding light on the true physical nature of the conditions prevailing at the crack surface and in the space within the crack. The experimental procedure is simulated numerically for a linear piezoelectric specimen in a four point bending configuration subjected to electrical loading perpendicular to the crack. The focus of these investigations is on a comparison between the commonly used exact crack face boundary condition and the recently proposed energetically consistent boundary conditions. To perform the numerical calculation with a wide range of electrical and mechanical loadings, two efficient finite element formulations are presented for the general analysis of crack problems with non-linear crack face boundary conditions. Methods for the numerical determination of the crack tip energy release rate and the simulation of the experimental method for obtaining the total energy release rate are developed. Numerical results for the crack tip and total energy release rate are given for both the exact and energetically consistent boundary conditions. It is shown that the crack tip energy release rate calculated under energetically consistent boundary conditions is equal to the total energy release rate generated from the simulated experimental method. When the exact boundary conditions are used, there is no such agreement.     

Variational analysis of transverse cracking and local delamination in [θm/90n]s laminates

A displacement-based variational model is developed to study the effects of transverse cracking and local delaminations in symmetric composite laminates. In the model, the crack shape is assumed to be a function of crack density and delamination length. Using a variational approach with the principle of minimum potential energy, governing equations are derived. The effective Young’s modulus E_x and energy release rate G are theoretically examined as a result of local delaminations.     

Strain field associated with brittle-fracture propagation in wide steel plates

The results of an experimental investigation concerned with the study of the strain field surrounding a brittle fracture propagating across a wide steel plate are presented in this paper. The data were obtained from tests of 6-ft wide steel plates that were instrumentated to measure surface strain and crack speed. The plates were tested at an average net applied stress of 19,000 psi, a temperature of about ?5° F, and with the notch-wedgeimpact method for fracture initiation. Several plates were tested under similar conditions and the results were superimposed to give a representative picture of the strain distribution on the surface of a plate in the region of the tip of a propagating fracture. Contours of the maximum principal strain for various lengths of crack are presented. The studies indicate that for this particular specimen geometry and associated test conditions, the strain field surrounding the tip of the advancing fracture remains essentially unchanged after traversing about one-third of the width of a 6-ft wide plate.     

Analysis of energy release rate for cracked laminates

1.IntroductionFailurebehaviorofcompositematerialsandsomeothermaterialslikewoodsandorientedpolymersaregovernedbyanisotropicandheterogeneouscharacteristics(Suoetal.,l99l,O'Brien,l987)I"21.ltiswell-knownthattheelasticstressfieldatthecracktiphasaninversesquarerootsingularityforgenerallyanisotropicbuthomogeneousmaterials(Hoenig,1982)l,l.ForheterogeneousmatCrials,aslongastheelasticmoduliarecontinuousanddifferentiablefunctionsofthespatialcoordinates,thisinversesquarerootsingularitystillprevails(Eis…     

Analysis of crack moving and curving in anisotropic solids

The general equations for a dynamically curved crack in an anisotropic solid are derived, and the asymptotic fields of a moving crack under arbitrary distributed loading on the crack surface are calculated from them. For a moving crack under mixed-mode loading conditions a general Muskhelishvili type approach is proposed to calculate intensity factors due to crack surface loading in anisotropic materials. The kinking and curving caused by dynamic loading in anisotropic materials are calculated using the maximum normal stress ratio criterion. The results show that cracks in anisotropic solids may deviate from the straight path and approach a direction parallel to the stiff axis even under symmetric loading and that a crack will tend to deviate more from the crack path to the direction of the stiff axis as the crack speed becomes higher.