Influence of damage on properties of strain localization in geomaterials at plane stress and plane strain

Summary By regarding geomaterials under loading as a mixture of intact and damaged parts, we investigate the influence of damage on the properties of strain localization in elastoplastic geomaterials at plane stress and plane strain. Conditions for the onset of strain localization including the effects of damage are derived for the cases of plane strain and plane stress. Discussed are the inclination of the localized band and the hardening modulus corresponding to the onset of strain localization. It is shown that the properties of the strain localization are dependent on the damage and the capacity of bearing hydrostatic pressure by the damaged part, and that damage may induce an earlier onset of strain localization and lead to instability of a geomaterial.accepted for publication 11 March 2004     

A fundamental model of cyclic instabilities in thermal barrier systems

Cyclic morphological instabilities in the thermally grown oxide (TGO) represent a source of failure in some thermal barrier systems. Observations and simulations have indicated that several factors interact to cause these instabilities to propagate: (i) thermal cycling; (ii) thermal expansion misfit; (iii) oxidation strain; (iv) yielding in the TGO and the bond coat; and (v) initial geometric imperfections. This study explores a fundamental understanding of the propagation phenomenon by devising a spherically symmetric model that can be solved analytically. The applicability of this model is addressed through comparison with simulations conducted for representative geometric imperfections and by analogy with the elastic/plastic indentation of a half space. Finite element analysis is used to confirm and extend the model. The analysis identifies the dependencies of the instability on the thermo-mechanical properties of the system. The crucial role of the in-plane growth strain is substantiated, as well as the requirement for bond coat yielding. It is demonstrated that yielding of the TGO is essential and is, in fact, the phenomenon that differentiates between cyclic and isothermal responses.     

Three-dimensional characterization of strain localization bands in high-resolution elastoplastic polycrystals

In crystalline materials, the experimental observation of the localization of plastic strains in particular directions is generally restricted to the surface of a sample containing some hundreds of grains, because of the difficulties underlying microstructural analysis. In these conditions, the determination of the morphological characteristics of localization can be limited by the poor statistical representativity of the domain of observation. The purpose of this work is to extend the analysis of localization – localization bands or else – to the 3D elastoplastic strain fields of a high-resolution representative volume element of a polycrystal.     

Analysis of material instabilities in inelastic solids by incremental energy minimization and relaxation methods: evolving deformation microstructures in finite plasticity

We propose an approach to the definition and analysis of material instabilities in rate-independent standard dissipative solids at finite strains based on finite-step-sized incremental energy minimization principles. The point of departure is a recently developed constitutive minimization principle for standard dissipative materials that optimizes a generalized incremental work function with respect to the internal variables. In an incremental setting at finite time steps this variational problem defines a quasi-hyperelastic stress potential. The existence of this potential allows to be recast a typical incremental boundary-value problem of quasi-static inelasticity into a principle of minimum incremental energy for standard dissipative solids. Mathematical existence theorems for sufficiently regular minimizers then induce a definition of the material stability of the inelastic material response in terms of the sequentially weakly lower semicontinuity of the incremental variational functional. As a consequence, the incremental material stability of standard dissipative solids may be defined in terms of the quasi-convexity or the rank-one convexity of the incremental stress potential. This global definition includes the classical local Hadamard condition but is more general. Furthermore, the variational setting opens up the possibility to analyze the post-critical development of deformation microstructures in non-stable inelastic materials based on energy relaxation methods. We outline minimization principles of quasi- and rank-one convexifications of incremental non-convex stress potentials for standard dissipative solids. The general concepts are applied to the analysis of evolving deformation microstructures in single-slip plasticity. For this canonical model problem, we outline details of the constitutive variational formulation and develop numerical and semi-analytical solution methods for a first-level rank-one convexification. A set of representative numerical investigations analyze the development of deformation microstructures in the form of rank-one laminates in single slip plasticity for homogeneous macro-deformation modes as well as inhomogeneous macroscopic boundary-value problems. The well-posedness of the relaxed variational formulation is indicated by an independence of typical finite element solutions on the mesh-size.     

Damage evaluation and damage localization of rock

Knowledge of damage accumulation and corresponding failure evolution are prerequisite for effective maintenance of civil engineering so as to avoid disaster. Based on statistical mesoscopic damage mechanics, it was revealed that there are three stages in the process of deformation, damage and failure of multiscale heterogeneous elastic–brittle medium. These are uniformly distributed damage, localized damage and catastrophic failure. In order to identify the transitions from scattering damage to macroscopically localized one, a condition for damage localization was given. The experiments of rock under uniaxial compression with the aid of observations of acoustic emission and speckle correlation do support the concept of localization. This provides a potential approach to properly evaluate damage accumulation in practice. In addition, it is found in the experiments that catastrophic failure displays critical sensitivity. This gives a helpful clue to the prediction of catastrophic failure.     

Adiabatic shear band localization of inelastic single crystals in symmetric double-slip process

Summary The main objective of the present paper is the development of a viscoplastic regularization procedure valid for an adiabatic dynamic process for multi-slips of single crystals. The next objective is to focus attention on the investigation of instability criteria, and particularly on shear band localization conditions.To achieve this aim, an analysis of acceleration waves is given, and advantage is taken of the notion of the instantaneous adiabatic acoustic tensor. If zero is an eigenvalue of the acoustic tensor, then the associated discontinuity does not propagate, and one speaks of a stationary discontinuity. This situation is referred to as the strain localization condition, and corresponds to a loss of hyperbolicity of the dynamical equations. It has been proved that for an, adiabatic process of rate-dependent (elastic-viscoplastic) crystal, the wave speed of discontinuity surface always remains real and different from zero. It means that for this case the initial-value problem is well-posed. However, for an adiabatic process of rate-independent(elastic-plastic) crystal, the wave speed of discontinuity surface can be equal zero. Then the necessary condition for a localized plastic deformation along the shear band to be formed is as follows: the determinant of the instantaneous adiabatic acoustic tensor is equal to zero. This condition for localization is equivalent to that obtained by using the standard bifurcation method. Based on this idea, the conditions for adiabatic shear band localization of plastic deformation have been investigated for single crystals. Particular attention has been focused on the discussion of the influence of thermal expansion, thermal plastic, softening and spatial covariance effects on shear band localization criteria for a planar model of an f.c.c. crystal undergoing symmetric primary-conjugate double slip. The results obtained have been compared with available experimental observations.Finally, it is noteworthy that the viscoplasticity regularization procedure can be used in the developing of an unconditionally stable numerical integration algorithm for simulation of adiabatic inelastic flow processes in ductile single crystals, cf. [21].The paper has been prepared within research programme sponsored by the Committee of Scientific Research under Grant 3 P404 031 07.     

Perturbation growth and localization in fluid-saturated inelastic porous media under quasi-static loadings

Instabilities in inelastic saturated porous media are investigated here for general three-dimensional states under quasi-static loadings using a perturbation approach and focussing in particular on the two limiting cases of the onset of growth and of blowing up of perturbations.For associative flow rules for the skeleton, both onset of growth and blowing up of perturbations depend only on the underlying drained properties. Unbounded growth is obtained when the condition of localization for the underlying drained deformation (singularity of the drained acoustic tensor) is approached or just passed. Onset of growth has always a divergence growth character and critical conditions are always associated to the shortwavelength regime leading to the fact that the failure mode is expected to be a localized one.For non-associative behaviour of the skeleton we show in contrast that the onset of growth and unbounded growth may be defined either by the drained or undrained properties. One or the other depends on the details of the constitutive behaviour but also on the type of loadings. In particular, unbounded growth occurs when either the condition of localization under drained or undrained conditions is first passed. Transition from decaying to growing behaviour may have a divergence character or flutter-type character. Here the critical conditions are associated either to the shortwavelength or to the longwavelength regimes and therefore the failure mode may be localized or diffuse.The hierarchy between criticality of drained and undrained properties is analysed for a general class of constitutive equations and the results are fully and explicitly illustrated for saturated porous media with skeleton obeying Drucker-Prager like constitutive model.     

Strain rate distribution and localization band width evolution during tensile test

The main objective of this paper is to study the evolution of the necking zone in a flat specimen during a tensile test. Two approaches are used and compared:

• –An experimental investigation of the strain rate distribution with Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometry (ESPI).
• –A numerical analysis with a thermodynamically consistent constitutive model that couples strongly isotropic continuum damage (CDM) and the elastoplastic behavior.

It is shown that strain rate maps are, for both approaches, relevant to investigate the development of the X-shape pattern that occurs during necking evolution. In particular, this pattern can be clearly observed on maps of the minimum determinant of the acoustic tensor. It appears even when damage values are low and the problem is still elliptic.It is shown that ESPI and CDM modeling are able to give a coherent picture of the phenomena that occur during neck development from the onset of instability to localize necking, in particular on localization bands angles and widths. In particular, physically meaningful information which is seldom considered such as band width evolution or strain rate distribution will be extracted from the analysis.     

考虑破碎影响的颗粒材料亚塑性模型及应变局部化模拟

在基于2ndP-K应力率的亚塑性模型基础上,通过引入一个能够考虑颗粒破碎影响的孔隙比-平均压力临界状态方程,形成了一个能够模拟颗粒破碎影响的颗粒材料亚塑性模型,数值算例考查了颗粒破碎对应变局部化模式及位移-承载曲线的影响,结果表明,所建议模型具有模拟破碎对颗粒材料应变局部影响的良好性能。     

脆性材料热-力耦合模型及热破裂数值分析方法

针对混凝土、岩石等脆性材料,利用热传导和热-力耦合的相关理论,并结合材料在细观尺度上的损伤演化规律,提出了一种考虑损伤的热-力耦合模型,并在原有材料破坏过程分析系统RFPA(Realistic Failure Process Analysis)模型的基础上建立了脆性材料热破裂过程分析的数值模拟方法.该方法考虑了脆性材料在细观层次上力学性质的非均匀性(包括强度、弹模、传导系数等),并通过统计分布函数建立了宏、细观力学性能之间的联系.对不同均匀程度材料的数值模拟结果表明:材料的非均匀性对热传导规律、热应力分布以及热破坏模式有较大的影响.材料热力学性质的非均匀性加剧了材料内部热应力分布的非均匀性,这是致使非均匀材料热破裂的一个重要因素.对稳态和瞬态热传导两种条件下的脆性介质破裂过程模拟分析表明,考虑瞬态热传导计算所得到的破裂区小于相同条件下稳态热传导所得到的结果,表明在热破裂过程分析中,应注重考虑瞬态热传导对破裂过程的影响.     

Damage accumulation for growth of anti-plane crack in work-hardening material

Elastic–plastic solutions of an anti-plane crack in an infinite body are used in conjunction with a continuum damage model to describe the conditions necessary for the onset of crack instability, fatigue crack propagation due to cyclic loading, and rates of crack growth due to time dependent events. A power law relates the stress to the strain of the material. The damage, which invokes nucleation, growth and coalescence of microvoids due to elevated strain, is confined to the plastic zone surrounding the crack tip. For applied loading below the yield stress, the small-scale and large-scale yielding solutions are used to determine the influence of strain hardening on crack instability and failure. Crack growth due to cyclic loading and time-dependent deformations are studied using the small-scale yielding solution of the deformation theory of plasticity.     

A large strain thermoviscoplastic formulation for the solidification of S.G. cast iron in a green sand mould

This paper presents a large strain thermoviscoplastic formulation for the analysis of the solidification process of spheroidal graphite (S.G.) cast iron in a green sand mould. This formulation includes two different non-associate constitutive models in order to describe the thermomechanical behaviour of each of such materials during the whole process. The performance of these models is evaluated in the analysis of a solidification test.     

A unified treatment of strain gradient plasticity

A theoretical framework is presented that has potential to cover a large range of strain gradient plasticity effects in isotropic materials. Both incremental plasticity and viscoplasticity models are presented. Many of the alternative models that have been presented in the literature are included as special cases. Based on the expression for plastic dissipation, it is in accordance with Gurtin (J. Mech. Phys. Solids 48 (2000) 989; Int. J. Plast. 19 (2003) 47) argued that the plastic flow direction is governed by a microstress q_ij and not the deviatoric Cauchy stress σ_ij′ that has been assumed by many others. The structure of the governing equations is of second order in the displacements and the plastic strains which makes it comparatively easy to implement in a finite element programme. In addition, a framework for the formulation of consistent boundary conditions is presented. It is shown that there is a close connection between surface energy of an interface and boundary conditions in terms of plastic strains and moment stresses. This should make it possible to study boundary layer effects at the interface between grains or phases. Consistent boundary conditions for an expanding elastic-plastic boundary are as well formulated. As examples, biaxial tension of a thin film on a thick substrate, torsion of a thin wire and a spherical void under remote hydrostatic tension are investigated.     

Effects of characteristic material lengths on mode III crack propagation in couple stress elastic–plastic materials

The asymptotic fields near the tip of a crack steadily propagating in a ductile material under Mode III loading conditions are investigated by adopting an incremental version of the indeterminate theory of couple stress plasticity displaying linear and isotropic strain hardening. The adopted constitutive model is able to account for the microstructure of the material by incorporating two distinct material characteristic lengths. It can also capture the strong size effects arising at small scales, which results from the underlying microstructures. According to the asymptotic crack tip fields for a stationary crack provided by the indeterminate theory of couple stress elasticity, the effects of microstructure mainly consist in a switch in the sign of tractions and displacement and in a substantial increase in the singularity of tractions ahead of the crack-tip, with respect to the classical solution of LEFM and EPFM. The increase in the stress singularity also occurs for small values of the strain hardening coefficient and is essentially due to the skew-symmetric stress field, since the symmetric stress field turns out to be non-singular. Moreover, the obtained results show that the ratio η introduced by Koiter has a limited effect on the strength of the stress singularity. However, it displays a strong influence on the angular distribution of the asymptotic crack tip fields.     

Numerical simulation of progressive shear localization and scale effect in cohesionless soil media

Objective and methodsA multi-yield surface model of the total strain formulation, which takes into account the confinement dependency and has numerical consistency with the crack analysis of reinforced concrete, is presented to simulate the progressive failure and the shear band formation in a cohesionless soil media.ResultsFor experimental verification, a comparison of the numerical analysis results with the reality is carried out in view of the progressive failure. The scale effect on the nominal strength is discussed with regard to the shear localization.ConclusionIt is shown that by means of the proposed concept the scale effect of the static bearing capacity of foundation can be well simulated.     

Length scale effects on the shear localization process in metallic glasses: A theoretical and computational study

Some recent experiments on sub-micron and nano-sized metallic glass (amorphous alloy) specimens have shown that the shear localization process becomes more stable and less catastrophic when compared to the response exhibited by large sample sizes. This leads to the discovery that the shear localization process and fracture can be delayed by decreasing sample volume. In this work we develop a non-local and finite-deformation-based constitutive model using thermodynamic principles and the theory of micro-force balance to study the causes for the aforementioned observations. The constitutive model has also been implemented into a commercially available finite-element program by writing a user-material subroutine. With the aid of finite-element simulations, our constitutive model predicts that metallic glass samples have the intrinsic ability to exhibit: (a) the delaying of (catastrophic) shear localization with decreasing sample size, and (b) homogeneous deformation behavior for sample volumes smaller than the shear band nucleus.The cause for the observations listed above is the increasing influence of a non-local interaction stress with decreasing sample volume. This interaction stress has energetic origins and it affects plastic deformation due to the strong coupling between plastic shearing and free-volume generation. Akin to strain-gradient plasticity theory, the role of the interaction stress is to strengthen the material at locations where the defect density/free volume is higher compared to the rest of metallic glass sample.     

Experimental investigation of cyclic and time-dependent deformation of titanium alloy at elevated temperature

A novel cyclic deformation test program was undertaken to characterize macroscopic time dependent deformation of a titanium alloy for use in viscoplastic model development. All tests were conducted at a high homologous temperature, 650 °C, where there are large time dependent and loading rate dependent effects. Uninterrupted constant amplitude tests having zero mean stress or a tensile mean stress were conducted using three different control modes: strain amplitude and strain rate, stress amplitude and stress rate, and a hybrid stress amplitude and strain rate. Strain ratcheting occurred for all cyclic tests having a tensile mean stress and no plastic shakedown was observed. The shape of the strain ratcheting curve as a function of time is analogous to a creep curve having primary, steady state and tertiary regions, but the magnitude of the ratchet strains are higher than creep strains would be for a constant stress equal to the mean stress. Strain cycles interrupted with up to eight 2-h stress relaxation periods around the hysteresis loop, including hold times in each quadrant of the stress–strain diagram, were also conducted. Stress relaxation was path-dependent and in some cases the stress relaxed to zero. The cyclic behavior of these interrupted tests was similar even though each cycle was very complex. These results support constitutive model development by providing exploratory, characterization and validation data.     

On the equivalence between traction- and stress-based approaches for the modeling of localized failure in solids

This work investigates systematically traction- and stress-based approaches for the modeling of strong and regularized discontinuities induced by localized failure in solids. Two complementary methodologies, i.e., discontinuities localized in an elastic solid and strain localization of an inelastic softening solid, are addressed. In the former it is assumed a priori that the discontinuity forms with a continuous stress field and along the known orientation. A traction-based failure criterion is introduced to characterize the discontinuity and the orientation is determined from Mohr's maximization postulate. If the displacement jumps are retained as independent variables, the strong/regularized discontinuity approaches follow, requiring constitutive models for both the bulk and discontinuity. Elimination of the displacement jumps at the material point level results in the embedded/smeared discontinuity approaches in which an overall inelastic constitutive model fulfilling the static constraint suffices. The second methodology is then adopted to check whether the assumed strain localization can occur and identify its consequences on the resulting approaches. The kinematic constraint guaranteeing stress boundedness and continuity upon strain localization is established for general inelastic softening solids. Application to a unified stress-based elastoplastic damage model naturally yields all the ingredients of a localized model for the discontinuity (band), justifying the first methodology. Two dual but not necessarily equivalent approaches, i.e., the traction-based elastoplastic damage model and the stress-based projected discontinuity model, are identified. The former is equivalent to the embedded and smeared discontinuity approaches, whereas in the later the discontinuity orientation and associated failure criterion are determined consistently from the kinematic constraint rather than given a priori. The bi-directional connections and equivalence conditions between the traction- and stress-based approaches are classified. Closed-form results under plane stress condition are also given. A generic failure criterion of either elliptic, parabolic or hyperbolic type is analyzed in a unified manner, with the classical von Mises (J₂), Drucker–Prager, Mohr–Coulomb and many other frequently employed criteria recovered as its particular cases.