Structural interfaces in linear elasticity. Part II: Effective properties and neutrality

The model of structural interfaces developed in Part I of this paper allows us to analytically attack and solve different problems of stress concentration and composites. In particular, (i) new formulae are given for effective properties of composite materials containing dilute suspensions of (randomly oriented) reinforced elliptical voids or inclusions; (ii) a new definition is proposed for inclusion neutrality (to account for the fact that the matrix is always ‘overstressed’, and thus non-neutral in a classical sense, at the contacts with the interfacial structure), which is shown to provide interesting stress optimality conditions. More generally, it is shown that the incorporation of an interfacial structure at the contact between two elastic solids exhibits properties that cannot be obtained using the more conventional approach of the zero-thickness, linear interface. For instance: contrary to the zero-thickness interface, both bulk and shear effective moduli can be optimized for a structural interface; effective properties higher that those possible with a perfect interface can be attained with a structural interface; and neutrality holds with a structural interface for a substantially broader range of parameters than for a zero-thickness interface.     

Micromechanics-based elastic damage modeling of particulate composites with weakened interfaces

A micromechanical framework is proposed to predict the effective elastic behavior and weakened interface evolution of particulate composites. The Eshelby’s tensor for an ellipsoidal inclusion with slightly weakened interface [Qu, J., 1993a. Eshelby tensor for an elastic inclusion with slightly weakened interfaces. Journal of Applied Mechanics 60 (4), 1048–1050; Qu, J., 1993b. The effect of slightly weakened interfaces on the overall elastic properties of composite materials. Mechanics of Materials 14, 269–281] is adopted to model spherical particles having imperfect interfaces in the composites and is incorporated into the micromechanical framework. Based on the Eshelby’s micromechanics, the effective elastic moduli of three-phase particulate composites are derived. A damage model is subsequently considered in accordance with the Weibull’s probabilistic function to characterize the varying probability of evolution of weakened interface between the inclusion and the matrix. The proposed micromechanical elastic damage model is applied to the uniaxial, biaxial and triaxial tensile loadings to predict the various stress–strain responses. Comparisons between the present predictions with other numerical and analytical predictions and available experimental data are conducted to assess the potential of the present framework.     

Effective moduli for micropolar composite with interface effect

Size-dependence is well observed for metal matrix composites, however the classical micromechanical model fails to describe this phenomenon. There are two different ways to consider this size-dependency: the first approach is to include the nonlocal effect by idealizing the matrix material as a high order continuum (e.g., micropolar or strain gradient); the second is to take into account the interface effect. In this work, we combine these two approaches together by introducing the interface effect into a micropolar micromechanical model. The interface constitutive relations and the generalized Young–Laplace equation for micropolar material model are firstly presented. Then they are incorporated into the micropolar micromechanical model to predict the effective bulk and shear moduli of a fiber-reinforced composite. Two intrinsic length scales appear: one is related to the microstructure of the matrix material, the other comes from the interface effect. The size-dependent effective moduli due to the nonlocal effect and interface effect can be synchronized or desynchronized for nanosize fibers, depending on the nature of the interface. For the relatively large fiber size, the size-dependence is dominated by the nonlocal effect. As expected, when the fiber size tends to infinity, classical result can be recovered.     

Nonlocal versus local elastoplastic behaviour of heterogeneous materials

The scale transition methods have been developed for many years in order to obtain the overall behavior of polycrystalline materials from their microscopic behavior and their microstructure. Nevertheless, some basic aspects are absent from such formalisms. The most significant one seems to be the heterogeneization by plastic straining which involves nonlocality of hardening. In this article, a nonlocal theory based upon crystalline plasticity is developed from which a nonlocal constitutive equation at the grain level is derived. With regard to the polycrystal, in order to deduce the behavior of a local equivalent homogeneous medium, an integral equation is proposed and solved for nonlocal inhomogeneous materials by the self-consistent approximation. This scheme is developed in case of a two-phase nonlocal material representing the dislocation cell structure induced during plastic straining. Numerical simulations based on a simplified model show significant effects on the intragranular heterogeneization.     

A LEVEL SET METHOD FOR MICROSTRUCTURE DESIGN OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS

I. INTRODUCTION Material design refers to the generation of composite materials with prescribed or improved propertiesthat cannot be found in the usual materials. This can be achieved by modifying the microstructureof the composite material. Now a syste…     

The effective elastic moduli of columnar composites made of cylindrically anisotropic phases with rough interfaces

The present work aims to determine the effective elastic moduli of a composite having a columnar microstructure and made of two cylindrically anisotropic phases perfectly bonded at their interface oscillating quickly and periodically along the circular circumferential direction. To achieve this objective, a two-scale homogenization method is elaborated. First, the micro-to-meso upscaling is carried out by applying an asymptotic analysis, and the zone in which the interface oscillates is correspondingly homogenized as an equivalent interphase whose elastic properties are analytically and exactly determined. Second, the meso-to-macro upscaling is accomplished by using the composite cylinder assemblage model, and closed-form solutions are derived for the effective elastic moduli of the composite. Two important cases in which rough interfaces exhibit comb and saw-tooth profiles are studied in detail. The analytical results given by the two-scale homogenization procedure are shown to agree well with the numerical ones provided by the finite element method and to verify the universal relations existing between the effective elastic moduli of a two-phase columnar composite.     

A new nonlocal bending model for Euler–Bernoulli nanobeams

This paper is concerned with the bending problem of nanobeams starting from a nonlocal thermodynamic approach. A new coupled nonlocal model, depending on two nonlocal parameters, is obtained by using a suitable definition of the free energy. Unlike previous approaches which directly substitute the expression of the nonlocal stress into the classical equilibrium equations, the proposed approach provides a methodology to recover nonlocal models starting from the free energy function. The coupled model can then be specialized to obtain a nanobeam formulation based on the Eringen nonlocal elasticity theory and on the gradient elastic model. The variational formulations are consistently provided and the differential equations with the related boundary conditions are thus derived. Nanocantilevers are solved in a closed-form and numerical results are presented to investigate the influence of the nonlocal parameters.     

An elastoplastic multi-level damage model for ductile matrix composites considering evolutionary weakened interface

An elastoplastic multi-level damage model considering evolutionary weakened interface is developed in this work to predict the effective elastoplastic behavior and multi-level damage evolution in particle reinforced ductile matrix composites (PRDMCs). The elastoplastic multi-level damage model is micromechanically derived on the basis of the ensemble-volume averaging procedure and the first-order effects of eigenstrains. The Eshelby’s tensor for an ellipsoidal inclusion with slightly weakened interface [Qu, J., 1993a. Eshelby tensor for an elastic inclusion with slightly weakened interfaces. Journal of Applied Mechanics 60 (4), 1048–1050; Qu, J., 1993b. The effect of slightly weakened interfaces on the overall elastic properties of composite materials. Mechanics of Materials, 14, 269–281] is adopted to model particles having mildly or severely weakened interface, and a multi-level damage model [Lee, H.K., Pyo, S.H., in press. Multi-level modeling of effective elastic behavior and progressive weakened interface in particulate composites. Composites Science and Technology] in accordance with the Weibull’s probabilistic function is employed to describe the sequential, progressive weakened interface in the composites. Numerical examples corresponding to uniaxial, biaxial and triaxial tension loadings are solved to illustrate the potential of the proposed micromechanical framework. A series of parametric analysis are carried out to investigate the influence of model parameters on the progression of weakened interface in the composites. Furthermore, the present prediction is compared with available experimental data in the literature to verify the proposed elastoplastic multi-level damage model.     

Bending of an elastoplastic Hencky bar-chain: from discrete to nonlocal continuous beam models

The static behavior of an elastoplastic one-dimensional lattice system in bending, also called a microstructured elastoplastic beam or elastoplastic Hencky bar-chain (HBC) system, is investigated. The lattice beam is loaded by concentrated or distributed transverse monotonic forces up to the complete collapse. The phenomenon of softening localization is also included. The lattice system is composed of piecewise linear hardening–softening elastoplastic hinges connected via rigid elements. This physical system can be viewed as the generalization of the elastic HBC model to the nonlinear elastoplasticity range. This lattice problem is demonstrated to be equivalent to the finite difference formulation of a continuous elastoplastic beam in bending. Solutions to the lattice problem may be obtained from the resolution of piecewise linear difference equations. A continuous nonlocal elastoplastic theory is then built from the lattice difference equations using a continualization process. The new nonlocal elastoplastic theory associated with both a distributed nonlocal elastoplastic law coupled to a cohesive elastoplastic model depends on length scales calibrated from the spacing of the lattice model. Differential equations of the nonlocal engineering model are solved for the structural configurations investigated in the lattice problem. It is shown that the new micromechanics-based nonlocal elastoplastic beam model efficiently captures the scale effects of the elastoplastic lattice model, used as the reference. The hardening–softening localization process of the nonlocal continuous model strongly depends on the lattice spacing which controls the size of the nonlocal length scales.     

One-dimensional dynamically consistent gradient elasticity models derived from a discrete microstructure: Part 1: Generic formulation

This paper is the first in a series of two that focus on gradient elasticity models derived from a discrete microstructure. In this first paper, a new continualization method is proposed in which each higher-order stiffness term is accompanied by a higher-order inertia term. As such, the resulting models are dynamically consistent. A new parameter is introduced that accounts for the nonlocal interaction between variables of the discrete model and of the continuous model. When this parameter is set to proper values, physically realistic behavior is obtained in statics as well as in dynamics. In this sense, the proposed methodology is superior to earlier approaches to derive gradient elasticity models, in which anomalies in the dynamic behavior have been found. A generic formulation of field equations and boundary conditions is given based on Hamilton's principle. In the second paper, analytical and numerical results of static and dynamic response of the second-order model and the fourth-order model will be treated.     

Dynamics of structural interfaces: Filtering and focussing effects for elastic waves

Dynamics of thick interfaces separating different regions of elastic materials is investigated. The interfaces are made up of elastic layers or inertial truss structures. The study of evanescent mode propagation and transmission properties reveals that the discrete nature of structural interfaces introduces unusual filtering characteristics in the system, which cannot be obtained with multilayered interfaces. An example of metamaterial is presented, namely, a planar structural interface, which acts as a flat lens, therefore evidencing the negative refraction and focussing of elastic waves.     

On the asymptotic crack-tip stress fields in nonlocal orthotropic elasticity

The crack-tip stress fields in orthotropic bodies are derived within the framework of Eringen’s nonlocal elasticity via the Green’s function method. The modified Bessel function of second kind and order zero is considered as the nonlocal kernel. We demonstrate that if the localisation residuals are neglected, as originally proposed by Eringen, the asymptotic stress tensor and its normal derivative are continuous across the crack. We prove that the stresses attained at the crack tip are finite in nonlocal orthotropic continua for all the three fracture modes (I, II and III). The relative magnitudes of the stress components depend on the material orthotropy. Moreover, non-zero self-balanced tractions exist on the crack edges for both isotropic and orthotropic continua. The special case of a mode I Griffith crack in a nonlocal and orthotropic material is studied, with the inclusion of the T-stress term.     

Interaction between a screw dislocation and viscoelastic interfaces

The analytical solutions for the interaction between dislocations and interfaces are of great importance to materials scientists as well as to mechanics researchers. The interfaces are treated as perfectly bonded in the most of the existing research works, where the traction and displacement vectors are continuous across the interfaces. However, in reality, there are discontinuities of displacements across the interfaces. In the present paper, the interaction between a screw dislocation and an imperfect interface is considered. The imperfect interface is modeled by linear spring and dashpot, i.e. linearly elastic and viscoelastic behaviors are introduced to model the imperfection of the interface. Particularly, we solved the boundary value problem analytically for Kelvin and Maxwell type of interface. In terms of geometrical configurations, we obtained the solutions for two joint half-spaces and a circular inclusion embedded in an infinite matrix. The analytical results show that the force acting on the dislocation depends on the mismatch of materials and the imperfection of the interface and evolves as time elapses.     

Nucleation and phase propagation in a multistable lattice with weak nonlocal interactions

We study the overdamped gradient flow dynamics of a chain of massless points connected by bistable nearest-neighbor (NN) interactions and harmonic next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) interactions under quasistatic loads of assigned displacements. The model reproduces experimental observations on the phase transition of shape-memory wires with the possibility of different microstructure evolution strategies: internal or boundary nucleations and one or two coherently propagating phase fronts. The presence or absence of a stress peak is also obtained by considering nonlocal interaction effects with the loading device. Similar results are also obtained under the hypothesis of global energy minimization. The system also retains the described properties in the continuum limit. Some rate effects are numerically analyzed.      

Meso-scale approach to modelling the fracture process zone of concrete subjected to uniaxial tension

A meso-scale analysis is performed to determine the fracture process zone of concrete subjected to uniaxial tension. The meso-structure of concrete is idealised as stiff aggregates embedded in a soft matrix and separated by weak interfaces. The mechanical response of the matrix, the inclusions and the interface between the matrix and the inclusions is modelled by a discrete lattice approach. The inelastic response of the lattice elements is described by a damage approach, which corresponds to a continuous reduction of the stiffness of the springs. The fracture process in uniaxial tension is approximated by an analysis of a two-dimensional cell with periodic boundary conditions. The spatial distribution of dissipated energy density at the meso-scale of concrete is determined. The size and shape of the deterministic FPZ is obtained as the average of random meso-scale analyses. Additionally, periodicity of the discretisation is prescribed to avoid influences of the boundaries of the periodic cell on fracture patterns. The results of these analyses are then used to calibrate an integral-type nonlocal model.     

Shear-horizontal waves in periodic layered nanostructure with both nonlocal and interface effects

The propagation of shear-horizontal(SH) waves in the periodic layered nanocomposite is investigated by using both the nonlocal integral model and the nonlocal differential model with the interface effect. Based on the transfer matrix method and the Bloch theory, the band structures for SH waves with both vertical and oblique incidences to the structure are obtained. It is found that by choosing appropriate interface parameters, the dispersion curves predicted by the nonlocal differential model w...     

An effective approach for modeling fluid flow in heterogeneous media using numerical manifold method

A major challenge of modeling fluid flow in heterogeneous media is to model the material interfaces, which may be arbitrarily oriented or intersected with Dirichlet, Neumann, or other boundaries, making it difficult to mesh and accurately satisfy the boundary constraints. In order to solve these problems, we derived a new continuous approach in the numerical manifold method (NMM). NMM is an ideal method to handle boundaries, considering its flexibility and efficiency with fixed mathematical mesh and its integration precision. With the two‐cover‐meshing system, we construct physical covers containing gradient jump terms defined as extended degrees of freedom to realize the refraction law across material interfaces. In the global equilibrium equations, the jump terms are naturally considered with the energy‐work seepage model. In this approach, high accuracy is expected from the newly constructed jump function together with simplex integration. Moreover, high mesh efficiency is realized by fixed triangular mathematical mesh with algorithms fully considering interfaces intersecting with Dirichlet, Neumann, or other boundaries and simplex integration on elements in arbitrary shapes. The new approach was coded into our NMM fluid flow model. We calculated examples involving fluid flow through a domain including (1) a single interface, (2) an idealized fault represented by multiple material interfaces, (3) intersected interfaces, and (4) an octagonal inclusion. We compared the simulated results to analytical solutions or results with denser mesh to test precision and efficiency and thereby proved that the new approach is accurate, efficient, and flexible, especially when considering intense geometric change or intersections. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rigorous Bounds on the Torsional Rigidity of Composite Shafts with Imperfect Interfaces

We derive upper and lower bounds for the torsional rigidity of cylindrical shafts with arbitrary cross-section containing a number of fibers with circular cross-section. Each fiber may have different constituent materials with different radius. At the interfaces between the fibers and the host matrix two kinds of imperfect interfaces are considered: one which models a thin interphase of low shear modulus and one which models a thin interphase of high shear modulus. Both types of interface will be characterized by an interface parameter which measures the stiffness of the interface. The exact expressions for the upper and lower bounds of the composite shaft depend on the constituent shear moduli, the absolute sizes and locations of the fibers, interface parameters, and the cross-sectional shape of the host shaft. Simplified expressions are also deduced for shafts with perfect bonding interfaces and for shafts with circular cross-section. The effects of the imperfect bonding are illustrated for a circular shaft containing a non-centered fiber. We find that when an additional constraint between the constituent properties of the phases is fulfilled for circular shafts, the upper and lower bounds will coincide. In the latter situation, the fibers are neutral inclusions under torsion and the bounds recover the previously known exact torsional rigidity.      

A level set method for structural topology optimization with multi-constraints and multi-materials

Combining the vector level set model, the shape sensitivity analysis theory with the gradient projection technique, a level set method for topology optimization with multi-constraints and multi-materials is presented in this paper. The method implicitly describes structural material interfaces by the vector level set and achieves the optimal shape and topology through the continuous evolution of the material interfaces in the structure. In order to increase computational efficiency for a fast convergence, an appropriate nonlinear speed mapping is established in the tangential space of the active constraints. Meanwhile, in order to overcome the numerical instability of general topology optimization problems, the regularization with the mean curvature flow is utilized to maintain the interface smoothness during the optimization process. The numerical examples demonstrate that the approach possesses a good flexibility in handling topological changes and gives an interface representation in a high fidelity, compared with other methods based on explicit boundary variations in the literature. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (59805001, 10332010) and Key Science and Technology Research Project of Ministry of Education of China (No.104060)     

Effective thermoelastic properties of graded doublyperiodic particulate matrix composites in varying externalstress fields

We consider a linear elastic composite medium, which consists of a homogeneousmatrix containing aligned ellipsoidal uncoated or coated inclusions arranged in a doubly periodicarray and subjected to inhomogeneous boundary conditions. The hypothesis of effective fieldhomogeneity near the inclusions is used. The general integral equation obtained reduces theanalysis of infinite number of inclusion problems to the analysis of a finite number of inclusions insome representative volume element (RVE) . The integral equation is solved by a modifiedversion of the Neumann series; the fast convergence of this method is demonstrated for concreteexamples. The nonlocal macroscopic constitutive equation relating the cell averages of stress andstrain is derived in explicit iterative form of an integral equation. A doubly periodic inclusion fieldin a finite ply subjected to a stress gradient along the functionally graded direction is considered.The stresses averaged over the cell are explicitly represented as functions of the boundaryconditions. Finally, the employed of proposed explicit relations for numerical simulations oftensors describing the local and nonlocal effective elastic properties of finite inclusion pliescontaining a simple cubic lattice of rigid inclusions and voids are considered. The local andnonlocal parts of average strains are estimated for inclusion plies of different thickness. Theboundary layers and scale effects for effective local and nonlocal effective properties as well as foraverage stresses will be revealed.