Phase-field models for brittle and cohesive fracture

In this paper we first recapitulate some basic notions of brittle and cohesive fracture models, as well as the phase-field approximation to fracture. Next, a critical assessment is made of the sensitivity of the phase-field approach to brittle fracture, in particular the degradation function, and the use of monolithic versus partitioned solution schemes. The last part of the paper makes extensions to a recently developed phase-field model for cohesive fracture, in particular for propagating cracks. Using some simple examples the current state of the cohesive phase-field model is shown.     

Spacetime dimensional analysis and self-similar solutions of linear elastodynamics and cohesive dynamic fracture

We present a dimensional analysis and self-similar solutions for linear elastodynamics with extensions to dynamic fracture models based on cohesive traction–separation relations. We formulate the problem using differential forms in spacetime and show that the scaling rules expressed in terms of forms are simpler and more uniform than those obtained for tensor representations of the solution. In the extension to cohesive elastodynamic fracture, we identify and study the influence of certain intrinsic cohesive scales on dynamic fracture behavior and describe a fundamental set of nondimensional groups that uniquely identifies families of self-similar solutions. We present numerical studies of the influence of selected nondimensional parameters on dynamic fracture response to verify the dimensional analysis, including the identification of the fundamental set for cohesive fracture mechanics. We show that distinct values of a widely-used nondimensional quantity can produce self-similar solutions. Therefore, this quantity is not fundamental, and it cannot parameterize dynamic, cohesive-fracture response.     

Theoretical development and experimental validation of a thermally dissipative cohesive zone model for dynamic fracture of amorphous polymers

A thermally dissipative cohesive zone model is developed for predicting the temperature increase at the tip of a crack propagating dynamically in a nominally brittle material exhibiting a cohesive-type failure such as crazing. The model assumes that fracture energy supplied to the crack tip region that is in excess of that needed for the creation of new free surfaces during crack advance is converted to heat within the cohesive zone. Bulk dissipation mechanisms, such as plasticity, are not accounted for. Several cohesive traction laws are examined, and the model is then used to make predictions of crack tip heating at various crack propagation speeds in the nominally brittle amorphous polymer PMMA, observed to fail by a crazing-type mechanism. The heating predictions are compared to experimental data where the temperature field surrounding a high speed crack in PMMA was measured. Measurements are made in real time using a multi-point high speed HgCdTe infrared radiation detector array. At the same time as temperature, simultaneous measurement of fracture energy is made by a strain gauge technique, and crack tip speed is monitored through a resistance ladder method. Material strength can be estimated through uniaxial tension tests, thus minimizing the need for parameter fitting in the stress-opening traction law. Excellent agreement between experiments and theory is found for two of the cohesive traction law temperature predictions, but only for the case where a single craze is active during the dynamic fracture of PMMA, i.e. crack tip speed up to approximately 0.2c_R. For higher speed fracture where subsurface damage becomes prominent, the line dissipation model of a cohesive zone is inadequate, and a distributed damage model is needed.     

A unified potential-based cohesive model of mixed-mode fracture

A generalized potential-based constitutive model for mixed-mode cohesive fracture is presented in conjunction with physical parameters such as fracture energy, cohesive strength and shape of cohesive interactions. It characterizes different fracture energies in each fracture mode, and can be applied to various material failure behavior (e.g. quasi-brittle). The unified potential leads to both intrinsic (with initial slope indicators to control elastic behavior) and extrinsic cohesive zone models. Path dependence of work-of-separation is investigated with respect to proportional and non-proportional paths—this investigation demonstrates consistency of the cohesive constitutive model. The potential-based model is verified by simulating a mixed-mode bending test. The actual potential is named PPR (Park-Paulino-Roesler), after the first initials of the authors’ last names.     

Separation work analysis of cohesive law and consistently coupled cohesive law

An appropriate coupled cohesive law for predicting the mixed mode failure is established by combining normal separation and tangential separation of surfaces in the cohesive zone model(CZM) and the cohesive element method.The Xu-Needleman exponential cohesive law with the fully shear failure mechanism is one of the most popular models.Based on the proposed consistently coupled rule/principle,the Xu-Needleman law with the fully shear failure mechanism is proved to be a non-consistently coupled cohesive la...     

Separation work analysis of cohesive law and consistently coupled cohesive law

An appropriate coupled cohesive law for predicting the mixed mode failure is established by combining normal separation and tangential separation of surfaces in the cohesive zone model (CZM) and the cohesive element method. The Xu-Needleman exponential cohesive law with the fully shear failure mechanism is one of the most popular models. Based on the proposed consistently coupled rule/principle, the Xu-Needleman law with the fully shear failure mechanism is proved to be a non-consistently coupled cohesive law by analyzing the surface separation work. It is shown that the Xu-Needleman law is only valid in the mixed mode fracture when the normal separation work equals the tangential separation work. Based on the consistently coupled principle and the modification of the Xu-Needleman law, a consistently coupled cohesive (CCC) law is given. It is shown that the proposed CCC law has already overcome the non-consistency defect of the Xu-Needleman law with great promise in mixed mode analyses.     

Numerical simulation of quasi-brittle fracture using damaging cohesive surfaces

The cohesive surface methodology is used in a numerical study of fracture of concrete. The traction vs. separation response is governed by an isotropic damage law in which damage evolves according to a prescribed one-dimensional linear or exponential softening law. Cohesive surfaces are immersed in the continuum to allow for a maximum freedom of crack path selection. The single edge notched four point shear beam and the double edge notched tensile bar are used to study: (i) the influence of the tangential cohesive response on the development of the fracture path and (ii) the mesh alignment sensitivity. It is shown that in the present formulation, the tangential cohesive response has a minor influence on both crack path and global characteristics. Mesh alignment does have a significant influence on the outcome of the numerical analysis.     

Static and dynamic analysis of the DCB problem in fracture mechanics

A finite difference scheme for treating the static and dynamic stress fields under plane-strain conditions in the DCB, is proposed. The adequacy of the scheme is established via the static solution by comparing the results obtained numerically with those obtained experimentally. Both the numerical and experimental results are also compared with data available in the literature. Discrepancies found are explained and discussed. For the numerical scheme adjusted to handle the propagating crack problem, the results represent a situation which is close to that observed experimentally; namely, an essentially constant steady state crack propagation speed from the start, with crack length at arrest and velocity values depending on the initial conditions. In addition, the velocities predicted by the analysis are shown to be in good agreement with those reported in the literature.     

蜂窝夹层板结构等效模型比较分析

在对蜂窝夹层板结构进行有限元分析时,要对其进行等效处理,采取等效方法的合理性将直接影响到计算结果的准确性.分别采用Reissner理论、Hoff理论、三明治夹芯板理论三种不同的等效方法建立有限元模型,然后进行了静力分析和模态分析,并将每种等效方法的计算结果与实体单元建立的蜂窝夹层板模型计算结果进行了比较.与Reissn...     

Molecular-dynamics simulation-based cohesive zone representation of intergranular fracture processes in aluminum

A traction-displacement relationship that may be embedded into a cohesive zone model for microscale problems of intergranular fracture is extracted from atomistic molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations. An MD model for crack propagation under steady-state conditions is developed to analyze intergranular fracture along a flat Σ99 [1 1 0] symmetric tilt grain boundary in aluminum. Under hydrostatic tensile load, the simulation reveals asymmetric crack propagation in the two opposite directions along the grain boundary. In one direction, the crack propagates in a brittle manner by cleavage with very little or no dislocation emission, and in the other direction, the propagation is ductile through the mechanism of deformation twinning. This behavior is consistent with the Rice criterion for cleavage vs. dislocation blunting transition at the crack tip. The preference for twinning to dislocation slip is in agreement with the predictions of the Tadmor and Hai criterion. A comparison with finite element calculations shows that while the stress field around the brittle crack tip follows the expected elastic solution for the given boundary conditions of the model, the stress field around the twinning crack tip has a strong plastic contribution. Through the definition of a Cohesive-Zone-Volume-Element—an atomistic analog to a continuum cohesive zone model element—the results from the MD simulation are recast to obtain an average continuum traction-displacement relationship to represent cohesive zone interaction along a characteristic length of the grain boundary interface for the cases of ductile and brittle decohesion.     

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.     

Monte Carlo simulation of complex cohesive fracture in random heterogeneous quasi-brittle materials

A numerical method is developed to simulate complex two-dimensional crack propagation in quasi-brittle materials considering random heterogeneous fracture properties. Potential cracks are represented by pre-inserted cohesive elements with tension and shear softening constitutive laws modelled by spatially-varying Weibull random fields. Monte Carlo simulations of a concrete specimen under uni-axial tension were carried out with extensive investigation of the effects of important numerical algorithms and material properties on numerical efficiency and stability, crack propagation processes and load-carrying capacities. It was found that the homogeneous model led to incorrect crack patterns and load–displacement curves with strong mesh-dependence, whereas the heterogeneous model predicted realistic, complicated fracture processes and load-carrying capacity of little mesh-dependence. Increasing the variance of the tensile strength random fields with increased heterogeneity led to reduction in the mean peak load and increase in the standard deviation. The developed method provides a simple but effective tool for assessment of structural reliability and calculation of characteristic material strength for structural design.     

Construction of discrete-continual models in structure analysis for extreme dynamic loadings

We propose a new method for constructing design models of high-rise buildings and structures, which is based on the treatment of the set of bearing structures as discrete-continual inelastic damageable system admitting large spatial displacements and rotations. We derive a relation for the virtual work functional with respect to increments of integral stress characteristics, which can be viewed as a starting point for solving applied problems of simulation of structural dynamics under the action of extreme forces. To take into account the processes of damage and failure of buildings and structures, we propose a generalized scheme for constructing a nonlinear physical model of deformation on the level of integral stress characteristics in the bearing structures of a storey. As an example of application of this model, we consider the problem of dynamic behavior of a multistorey building under a spatial seismic load.     

Three-dimensional cohesive fracture modeling of non-planar crack growth using adaptive FE technique

In this paper, the three-dimensional adaptive finite element modeling is presented for cohesive fracture analysis of non-planer crack growth. The technique is performed based on the Zienkiewicz–Zhu error estimator by employing the modified superconvergent patch recovery procedure for the stress recovery. The Espinosa–Zavattieri bilinear constitutive equation is used to describe the cohesive tractions and displacement jumps. The 3D cohesive fracture element is employed to simulate the crack growth in a non-planar curved pattern. The crack growth criterion is proposed in terms of the principal stress and its direction. Finally, several numerical examples are analyzed to demonstrate the validity and capability of proposed computational algorithm. The predicted crack growth simulation and corresponding load-displacement curves are compared with the experimental and other numerical results reported in literature.     

Initiation of cracks with cohesive force models: a variational approach

In the spirit of the variational approach of Fracture Mechanics initiated in [Del Piero, G., 1997. One-dimensional ductile-brittle transition, yielding and structured deformations. In: P. Argoul, M. Frémond (Eds.), Proceedings of IUTAM Symposium “Variations de domaines et frontières libres en mécanique”, Paris, 1997, Kluwer Academic] and [Francfort, G.A., Marigo, J.-J., 1998. Revisiting brittle fracture as an energy minimization problem. J. Mech. Phys. Solids 46 (8), 1319–1342], we define the loss of stability of the elastic response of the body as the criterion of initiation of cracks. The result is very sensitive to the choice of the surface energy density. On one hand, if we adopt the Griffith assumption, then the elastic state is generally always stable. On the other hand, in the case of a surface energy of the Barenblatt type, i.e. a surface energy depending non-trivially on the jump of the displacement and inducing cohesive forces, the elastic response remains stable only if the stress field does not reach a critical value. In the full three-dimensional context of an isotropic material, we prove that this yield stress criterion is equivalent to a maximal traction criterion and a maximal shear criterion if the surface energy density is Fréchet differentiable at the origin. When the surface energy density is only Gâteaux differentiable, we obtain a yield stress criterion based on an intrinsic curve in the Mohr diagram. In any case, the domain of the admissible stress tensors is convex, unbounded in the direction of the hydrostatic pressures and depends only on the extreme eigenvalues of the stress tensor.     

Comparative analysis of turbulence models for calculating a near-wall boundary layer

The integral relations, the algebraic model, and the family of differential turbulence models widely used in theoretical and practical boundary layers studies are considered. The differential turbulence models are analyzed for fully developed incompressible-fluid flow in three regions: the viscous sublayer, the logarithmic layer, and the flow core. Numerical results are compared with analytical and experimental dependences. The numerical results for the boundary layer in a liquid rocket engine (LRE) nozzle, where compressibility, the temperature factor, and flow acceleration are significant, are presented. Recommendations on the applicability of the turbulence models considered are given. Moscow. Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 44–58, January–February, 1998. The work received financial support from the Russian Foundation for Fundamental Research (project No.96-01-00260).     

Modern topics and challenges in dynamic fracture

The field of dynamic fracture has been enlivened over the last 5 years or so by a series of remarkable accomplishments in different fields—earthquake science, atomistic (classical and quantum) simulations, novel laboratory experiments, materials modeling, and continuum mechanics. Important concepts either discovered for the first time or elaborated in new ways reveal wider significance. Here the separate streams of the literature of this progress are reviewed comparatively to highlight commonality and contrasts in the mechanics and physics.Much of the value of the new work resides in the new questions it has raised, which suggests profitable areas for research in the next few years and beyond. From the viewpoint of fundamental science, excitement is greatest in the struggle to probe the character of dynamic fracture at the atomic scale, using Newtonian or quantum mechanics as appropriate (a qualifier to be debated!). But lively interest is also directed towards modeling and experimentation at macroscales, including the geological, where the science of fracture is pulled at once by fundamental issues, such as the curious effects of friction, and the structural, where dynamic effects are essential to proper design or certification and even in manufacture.     

Strain energy density criteria for dynamic fracture and dynamic crack branching

Dynamic extension of Sih's fracture criterion based on strain energy density factor, r_c (dW/dV), is used to analyze dynamic crack propagation and branching. Influence of the nonsingular components, which are known as the higher order terms (HOT) in the crack tip stress field, on the strain energy density distribution at a critical distance surrounding the crack tip moving at constant crack velocity is examined. This r_c (dW/dV) fracture criterion is then used to analyze available dynamic photoelastic results of crack branching and of engineering materials.