Meshless analysis of plasticity with application to crack growth problems

The governing equations for classical rate-independent plasticity are formulated in the framework of meshless method. The special J₂ flow theory for three-dimensional, two-dimensional plane strain and plane stress problems are presented. The numerical procedures, including return mapping algorithm, to obtain the solutions of boundary-value problems in computational plasticity are outlined. For meshless analysis the special treatment of the presence of barriers and mirror symmetries is formulated. The crack growth process in elastic–plastic solid under plane strain and plane stress conditions is analyzed. Numerical results are presented and discussed.     

Dynamic crack tip fields and dynamic crack propagation characteristics of anisotropic material

Based on mechanics of anisotropic material, the dynamic crack propagation problem of I/II mixed mode crack in an infinite anisotropic body is investigated. Expressions of dynamic stress intensity factors for modes I and II crack are obtained. Components of dynamic stress and dynamic displacements around the crack tip are derived. The strain energy density theory is used to predict the dynamic crack extension angle. The critical strain energy density is determined by the strength parameters of anisotropic materials. The obtained dynamic crack tip fields are unified and applicable to the analysis of the crack tip fields of anisotropic material, orthotropic material and isotropic material under dynamic or static load. The obtained results show Crack propagation characteristics are represented by the mechanical properties of anisotropic material, i.e., crack propagation velocity M and fiber direction α. In particular, the fiber direction α and the crack propagation velocity M give greater influence on the variations of the stress fields and displacement fields. Fracture angle is found to depend not only on the crack propagation but also on the anisotropic character of the material.     

Dynamics of asymmetrical crack propagation in composite materials

When a crack appears in composite materials, the fibrous system will form bridges, and the crack propagates asymmetrically as a rule. A dynamic model of an asymmetrical crack propagation is considered and investigated by applying the self-similar functions. The formulation involves the development of a Riemann–Hilbert problem. The analytical solution of an asymmetrical propagation crack of composite materials under the action of variable moving loads and unit-step moving loads is obtained.     

Energy approach to crack growth in a fiber-reinforced brittle material modeled by an inclusion

Brittle materials randomly reinforced with a low volume fraction of strong, stiff and ductile fibers are considered, with specific reference to fiber-reinforced cements and concrete. Visible cracks in such materials are accompanied by a surrounding damage zone – together these constitute a very complex “crack system”. Enormous effort has been put into trying to understand the micromechanics of such systems. Almost all of these efforts do not deal with the “crack system” propagation behavior as a whole. The propagation process of such a “crack system” includes propagation of the visible crack and the growth of the damage zone. Propagation may take place by lengthening of the visible crack together with the concomitant lengthening of the surrounding damage zone, or simply by broadening of the damage zone while the visible crack length remains unchanged – or simultaneously by growth of both types. A phenomenological completely theoretical model (for an ideal material) is here proposed which can serve to examine the propagation process by means of energy principles, without recourse to the microscopic details of the process. An application of this theoretical approach is presented for the case of a damage zone evolving with a rectangular shape. This shape is chosen because it is expected that it will illustrate the nature of damage evolution and because the computational procedure necessary to follow the growth is the most straightforward.     

Simulation of crack propagation in rock in plasma blasting technology

Plasma Blasting Technology (PBT) involves the production of a pulsed electrical discharge by inserting a blasting probe in a water-filled cavity drilled in a rock, which produces shocks or pressure waves in the water. These pulses then propagate into the rock, leading to fracture. In this paper, we present the results of two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations using the SHALE code to study crack propagation in rock. Three separate issues have been examined. Firstly, assuming that a constant pressure P is maintained in the cavity for a time , we have determined the P- curve that just cracks a given rock into at least two large-sized parts. This study shows that there exists an optimal pressure level for cracking a given rock-type and geometry. Secondly, we have varied the volume of water in which the initial energy E is deposited, which corresponds to different initial peak pressures . We have determined the E- curve that just breaks the rock into four large-sized parts. It is found that there must be an optimal that lowers the energy consumption, but with acceptable probe damage. Thirdly, we have attempted to identify the dominant mechanism of rock fracture. We also highlight some numerical errors that must be kept in mind in such simulations. Received 4 September 2001 / Accepted 12 March 2002 Published online 11 June 2002     

修正的拉应力裂纹扩展准则及裂隙\=水压对裂纹扩展的影响

对脆性材料的第一主应力--拉应力裂纹扩展准则进行了补充和修正,修正的裂纹扩展准则能确定裂纹扩展步长.以平面斜置裂纹扩展为例,利用无网格Galerkin方法,对不含裂隙水压的二维裂纹扩展进行数值模拟,计算结果与试验结果一致,表明最大周向拉应力准则的正确性.在不同裂隙水压条件下,研究了二维裂纹初始破裂,并在给定水压下对二维裂纹扩展路径进行了数值模拟跟踪.结果表明裂隙水压对裂纹初始破裂方向、破裂步长、破裂载荷和裂隙岩体破裂强度有显著影响.有水压和无水压的扩展迹线不同,但后续的扩展趋势相同.     

Material force for dynamic crack propagation in multiphase micromorphic materials

Micromorphic theory, which considers material body as a continuous collection of deformable particles of finite size and inner structure; each has nine independent degrees of freedom describing the stretches and rotations of the particle in addition to the three classical translational degrees of freedom of its center, is briefly introduced in this work. The concept of material forces, which may also be referred as Eshelbian mechanics, is extended to micromorphic theory. The balance law of pseudo-momentum is formulated. The detailed expressions of Eshelby stress tensor, pseudo-momentum, and material forces are derived for thermoelastic micromorphic solid. It is found that the material forces are due to (1) body force and body moment, (2) temperature gradient and (3) material inhomogeneities in density, microinertia, and elastic coefficients. The general expression of material forces due to the presence of dynamically propagating crack front has also been derived. It is found that, at the crack front, material force is reduced to the J-integral in a very special and restrictive case.     

Energy release rates in rubber during dynamic crack propagation

The theoretical understanding of the fracture mechanics of rubber is not as well developed as for other engineering materials, such as metals. The present study is intended to further the understanding of the dissipative processes that take place in rubber in the vicinity of a propagating crack tip. This dissipation contributes significantly to the total fracture toughness of the rubber and is therefore of great interest from a fracture mechanics point of view. To study this, a computational framework for analysing high-speed crack growth in a biaxially stretched rubber under plane stress is therefore formulated. The main purpose is to investigate the energy release rates required for crack propagation under different modes of biaxial stretching. The results show, that inertia comes into play when the crack speed exceeds about 50 m/s. The total work of fracture by far exceeds the surface energy consumed at the very crack tip, and the difference must be attributed to dissipative damage processes in the vicinity of the crack tip. The size of this damage/dissipation zone is expected to be a few millimetres.     

Dynamic meshless method applied to nonlocal crack problems

The dynamic meshless methods for local and nonlocal field theories are formulated in this paper. Application to two crack problems is presented. The meshless method of local theory gives solution that is in good agreement with the classical analytical crack tip solution, while the nonlocal theory yields a solution without stress singularity at the crack tip. The numerical results also show the embedded nonlocal nature of meshless methods.     

The simulation of dynamic crack propagation using the cohesive segments method

The cohesive segments method is a finite element framework that allows for the simulation of the nucleation, growth and coalescence of multiple cracks in solids. In this framework, cracks are introduced as jumps in the displacement field by employing the partition of unity property of finite element shape functions. The magnitude of these jumps are governed by cohesive constitutive relations. In this paper, the cohesive segments method is extended for the simulation of fast crack propagation in brittle solids. The performance of the method is demonstrated in several examples involving crack growth in linear elastic solids under plane stress conditions: tensile loading of a block; shear loading of a block and crack growth along and near a bi-material interface.     

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.     

Fracture propagation in brittle materials as a standard dissipative process: General theorems and crack tracking algorithms

The present work frames the problem of three-dimensional quasi-static crack propagation in brittle materials into the theory of standard dissipative processes. Variational formulations are stated. They characterize the three dimensional crack front “quasi-static velocity” as minimizer of constrained quadratic functionals. An implicit in time crack tracking algorithm that computationally handles the constraint via the penalty method algorithm is introduced and proof of concept is provided.     

Scaling behavior of thermal shock crack patterns and tunneling cracks driven by cooling or drying

Cracks driven by shrinkage due to cooling or drying arrange themselves via mutual interaction. For parallel straight crack arrays driven by idealized transient shrinkage fields the scaling behavior in an infinite half-space is derived analytically by means of fracture mechanics bifurcation analysis with two plausible scaling assumptions. Crack spacing in thermal shock crack patterns has been found to be approximately proportional to the crack length and inversely proportional to the crack velocity. The spacing of tunneling cracks formed in a drying layer between plates scales as the 2/3rd power of layer thickness as a consequence of the specific interaction between the tunneling cracks. The difference in scaling behavior in the two cases is explained by the dimensionality of the geometrical setup determined by the boundary condition rather than by different physical processes. In either case, good agreement between theory and experiments is found.     

Acoustic emission monitoring of crack propagation in additively manufactured and conventional titanium components

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a novel and innovative production technology that can produce complex and lightweight engineering products. In AM components, as in all engineering materials, fatigue is considered as one of the principle causes of unexpected failure. In order to detect, localise and characterise cracks in various material components and metals, acoustic emission (AE) is used as a non-destructive monitoring technique. One of the main advantages of AE is that it can be also used for dynamic damage characterisation and specifically for crack propagation monitoring. In this research, we use AE to monitor the fatigue crack growth behaviour of Ti6Al4V components under four-point bending. The samples were produced by means of AM as well as conventional material. Notched and unnotched specimens were investigated with respect to the crack severity and crack detection using AE. The main AE signal parameters –such as cumulative events, hits, duration, average frequency and rise time– were evaluated and indicate sensitivity to damage propagation in order to lead to a warning against the final fracture occurrence. This is the first time that AE is applied in AM components under fatigue.     

Surface initiated crack growth simulation in moving lubricated contact

The paper describes a two-dimensional computational model for simulating surface initiated crack growth in the lubricated contact area that leads to surface pitting of mechanical components. The model assumes size and orientation of the initial crack which is subjected to contact loading conditions, accounting for the elasto-hydrodynamic-lubrication effects and tangential loading due to sliding. The influence of a lubricating fluid, driven into the crack by hydraulic mechanism, is also considered. The minimum strain energy density criterion is used to analyze crack propagation with the aim of the finite element analysis. The model is applied to a real pitting problem of a gear. The results for pit sizes correlate well with those observed in experimental testing.     

On criteria for dynamic adiabatic shear band propagation

In this work, we postulate the physical criterion for dynamic shear band propagation, and based on this assumption, we implement a numerical algorithm and a computation criterion to simulate initiation and propagation of dynamic adiabatic shear bands (ASBs). The physical criterion is based on the hypothesis that material inside the shear band region undergoes a dynamic recrystallization process during deformation under high temperature and high strain-rate conditions. In addition to providing a new perspective to the physics of the adiabatic shearbanding process and identifying material properties that play a crucial role in defining the material's susceptibility to ASBs, the proposed criterion is instrumental in numerical simulations of the propagation of ASBs when multi-physics models are adopted to describe and predict the complex constitutive behavior of ASBs in ductile materials. Systematic and large scale meshfree simulations have been conducted to test and validate the proposed criterion by examining the formation, propagation, and post-bifurcation behaviors of ASBs in two materials, 4340 steel and OFHC copper. The effects of heat conduction, in particular the length scale introduced by heat conduction, are also studied. The results of the numerical simulations are compared with experimental observations and a close agreement is found for various characteristic features of ASBs, such as the shear band width, speed of propagation, and maximum temperature.     

Fatigue crack growth simulation in coated materials using X-FEM

In the present work, the eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) is used to study the effect of bi-material interfaces on fatigue life in galvanised panels. X-FEM and Paris law are implemented in ABAQUS software using Python code. The XFEM method proved to be an adequate method for stress intensity factor computation, and, furthermore, no remeshing is required for crack growth simulations. A study of fatigue crack growth is conducted for several substrate materials, and the influence of the initial crack angle is ascertained. This study also compares the crack growth rate between three types of bi-materials alloys zinc/steel, zinc/aluminium, and zinc/zinc. The interaction between two cracks and fatigue life, in the presence of bi-material interface, is investigated as well.     

Effect of electric boundary conditions on crack propagation in ferroelectric ceramics

In this paper, the effect of electric boundary conditions on Mode I crack propagation in ferroelectric ceramics is studied by using both linear and nonlinear piezoelectric fracture mechanics. In linear analysis, impermeable cracks under open circuit and short circuit are analyzed using the Stroh formalism and a rescaling method. It is shown that the energy release rate in short circuit is larger than that in open circuit. In nonlinear analysis, permeable crack conditions are used and the nonlinear effect of domain switching near a crack tip is considered using an energy-based switching criterion proposed by Hwang et al.（Acta Metal. Mater.,1995）. In open circuit, a large depolarization field induced by domain switching makes switching much more diffcult than that in short circuit. Analysis shows that the energy release rate in short circuit is still larger than that in open circuit, and is also larger than the linear result. Consequently,whether using linear or nonlinear fracture analysis, a crack is found easier to propagate in short circuit than in open circuit, which is consistent with the experimental observations of Kounga Njiwa et al.（Eng. Fract. Mech., 2006）.