Analysis of the strain field in the vicinity of a crack-tip in an in-plane isotropic paper material

Strains, computed by the finite element method, are evaluated and compared to an experimentally determined strain field. The analyzed low-density paper has been designed to ensure bond–breakage as the dominating damage mechanism and the paper material is approximately in-plane isotropic. An optical non-contact displacement measuring system has been used in fracture tests to determine the strain field in the crack-tip region of a pre-fabricated crack. Additionally, acoustic emission monitored tensile tests have been conducted to determine onset and evolution of damage processes and thereby enabling calibration of required constitutive parameters. The results suggest that the investigated paper material can tolerate significantly higher strains than what is predicted by a classic elastic–plastic J₂-flow theory. Immediately before onset of the final fracture (i.e., localization), the experimental measured normal strain in the near-tip region is around 60% higher than the computed strain when using exclusively an elastic–plastic theory for the corresponding load while the strain computed utilizing a non-local damage theory is of the same order of magnitude as the experimentally measured strain. Hence, it seems essential to include a non-local continuum theory to describe strains in the near-tip region quantitatively correct for paper materials. It is demonstrated that path independence of the well-known J-integral does not prevail for this class of material models. Only for the special situation of a homogenous damage field in the crack-tip region may the stress and strain fields be described by the well-known HRR-solutions.     

Evolution of bond fractures in a randomly distributed fiber network

Fracture in a planar randomly ordered fiber network subjected to approximately homogenous macroscopic stress and strain field is considered. A theory describing material degradation on a macroscopic scale is derived via Griffith’s energy balance for an internal fractured area in the network assuming the active fracture process on the microscopic level is fiber–fiber bond breakage. Attention is confined to a purely mechanical theory assuming isothermal processes and the theory relies on equations commonly used in theories of statistical physics. In the theory, a bond breaking driving force is stated to be equal to the elastic strain energy density of a non-fractured network. A debond fraction can be coupled to a linearly decrease of the network’s macroscopic stiffness. The rate of the fracture processes is determined by the network’s inherent properties (bond and fiber density, bond strength, etc.). During the loading process, until onset of localization, the bond breaks occur at randomly distributed locations spread over the fiber network and the theory estimate material degradation on a macroscopic level. When localization takes place, the fracture process changes from a two-dimensional randomly distributed process to a one-dimensional process and other theories have to be included to describe post-localization behavior. An approximately in-plane isotropic low-density paper is used in tensile experiments while monitoring acoustic emission activity to evaluate the theory. The experimentally obtained results support the theory surprisingly well.     

Endommagement d'un composite polypropylène renforcé par des fibres de verre courtes : approche expérimentale

To obtain good mechanical performance of the composite material, it is important to optimise the fibres ratio as well as the fibre/matrix interface quality which have influence on the damage. The main objective of this study is to determine the structural parameters influence on damage evolution concerning two types of polypropylene glass fibres composites. With a classical approach of damage mechanical theory which consists of load–unload tensile tests, acoustic emission permits to detect and follow damage mechanisms during loading. Fractographic analysis highlights the different assumptions and conclusions for this study.     

疲劳损伤问题中有效应力的一种定义

有效应力是损伤力学中的一个重要概念,这个概念的提出为用无损状态下的本构方程描述有损伤材料的行为提供了有效手段.本文探讨损伤力学中有效应力的定义,通过对损伤演化规律的分析,指出有效应力的一般定义不适用于疲劳损伤问题.本文认为,疲劳问题中的有效应力应该以等效寿命为基础,并根据剩余寿命的概念引入了疲劳损伤问题中有效应力的一种定义.     

Multiaxial creep and cyclic plasticity in nickel-base superalloy C263

Physically-based constitutive equations for uniaxial creep deformation in nickel alloy C263 [Acta Mater. 50 (2002) 2917] have been generalised for multiaxial stress states using conventional von Mises type assumptions. A range of biaxial creep tests have been carried out on nickel alloy C263 in order to investigate the stress state sensitivity of creep damage evolution. The sensitivity has been quantified in C263 and embodied within the creep constitutive equations for this material. The equations have been implemented into finite element code. The resulting computed creep behaviour for a range of stress state compares well with experimental results. Creep tests have been carried out on double notched bar specimens over a range of nominal stress. The effect of the notches is to introduce multiaxial stress states local to the notches which influences creep damage evolution. Finite element models of the double notch bar specimens have been developed and used to test the ability of the model to predict correctly, or otherwise, the creep rupture lifetimes of components in which multiaxial stress states exist. Reasonable comparisons with experimental results are achieved. The γ^′ solvus temperature of C263 is about 925 °C, so that thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) loading in which the temperature exceeds the solvus leads to the dissolution of the γ^′ precipitate, and a resulting solution treated material. The cyclic plasticity and creep behaviour of the solution treated material is quite different to that of the material with standard heat treatment. A time-independent cyclic plasticity model with kinematic and isotropic hardening has been developed for solution treated and standard heat treated nickel-base superalloy C263. It has been combined with the physically-based creep model to provide constitutive equations for TMF in C263 over the temperature range 20–950 °C, capable of predicting deformation and life in creep cavitation-dominated TMF failure.     

Creep damage and life analysis of anisotropic materials

Summary  This paper provides a short survey of some recent advances in the mathematical modelling of materials behaviour under creep conditions. The tertiary creep phase is accompanied by the formation of microscopic cracks on the grain boundaries in such a way so that damage accumulation occurs. The paper is divided into three parts. Firstly, the damage state in a uniaxial tension specimen is discussed and the time to rupture calculated. The second part is concerned with the creep behaviour of materials in multiaxial stress. Because of its microscopic nature, damage generally has an anisotropic character even if the material was originally isotropic. The fissure's orientation and length cause anisotropic macroscopic behaviour. Therefore, damage in an isotropic or anisotropic material, which is in a state of multiaxial stress, can only be described in a tensorial form. Thus, tensorial constitutive and evolution equations have been developed. Some examples for practical use are discussed. Finally, some own experiments are mentioned which have been carried out in order to validate the mathematical modelling. Received 16 July 1999; accepted for publication 8 March 2000     

Finite deformations of fibre-reinforced elastic solids with fibre bending stiffness

In the conventional theory of finite deformations of fibre-reinforced elastic solids it is assumed that the strain-energy is an isotropic invariant function of the deformation and a unit vector A that defines the fibre direction and is convected with the material. This leads to a constitutive equation that involves no natural length. To incorporate fibre bending stiffness into a continuum theory, we make the more general assumption that the strain-energy depends on deformation, fibre direction, and the gradients of the fibre direction in the deformed configuration. The resulting extended theory requires, in general, a non-symmetric stress and the couple-stress. The constitutive equations for stress and couple-stress are formulated in a general way, and specialized to the case in which dependence on the fibre direction gradients is restricted to dependence on their directional derivatives in the fibre direction. This is further specialized to the case of plane strain, and finite pure bending of a thick plate is solved as an example. We also formulate and develop the linearized theory in which the stress and couple-stress are linear functions of the first and second spacial derivatives of the displacement. In this case for the symmetric part of the stress we recover the standard equations of transversely isotropic linear elasticity, with five elastic moduli, and find that, in the most general case, a further seven moduli are required to characterize the couple-stress.     

Equilibrium Paths of a Hyperelastic Body Under Progressive Damage

This paper deals with equilibrium problems in nonlinear dissipative inelasticity, where inelastic effects are produced by the damage of the material. The inelastic constitutive law is obtained by modifying the classical constitutive law for a hyperelastic isotropic material through a damage function. To define this damage function, which allows to measure the effective stress and the dissipated energy, it is first used the Clausius-Duhem inequality, to have the (rate-independent) flow law of the damaged state and then it has been imposed a damage criterion based on an energy approach. After making the constitutive modeling, the boundary-value problem of the Rivlin’s cube, now composed of damaged material, is formulated. The purpose is to analyze a three-dimensional body that, during the deformation process, experiences a progressively increasing damage. Equilibrium branches of symmetric and asymmetric solutions, together to bifurcation points, are computed. Emphasis is placed in investigating how the damage can alter these equilibrium paths with respect to the virgin undamaged case. In particular, the stress reductions caused by damage can give rise to transitions from hardening type to the softening one of the constitutive behavior. These changes can affect the quality of the equilibrium solutions. Accordingly, the analysis is completed by assessing the stability of the solutions. For this aim, the energetic method is extended to damaged materials.     

准脆性材料的弹塑性各向异性损伤耦合本构模型研究

针对准脆性材料的非线性特征：强度软化和刚度退化、单边效应、侧限强化和拉压软化、不可恢复变形、剪胀及非弹性体胀,在热动力学框架内,建立了准脆性材料的弹塑性与各向异性损伤耦合的本构关系。对准脆性材料的变形机理和损伤诱发的各向异性进行了诠释,并给出了损伤构形和有效构形中各物理量之间的关系。在有效应力空间内,建立了塑性屈服准则、拉压不同的塑性随动强化法则和各向同性强化法则。在损伤构形中,采用应变能释放率,建立了拉压损伤准则、拉压不同的损伤随动强化法则和各向同性强化法则。基于塑性屈服准则和损伤准则,构建了塑性势泛函和损伤势泛函,并由正交性法则,给出了塑性和损伤强化效应内变量的演化规律,同时,联立塑性屈服面和损伤加载面,给出了塑性流动和损伤演化内变量的演化法则。将损伤力学和塑性力学结合起来,建立了应变驱动的应力-应变增量本构关系,给出了本构数值积分的要点。以单轴加载-卸载往复试验识别和校准了本构材料常数,并对单轴单调试验、单轴加载-卸载往复试验、二轴受压、二轴拉压试验和三轴受压试验进行了预测,并与试验结果作了比较,结果表明,所建本构模型对准脆性材料的非线性材料性能有良好的预测能力。     

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.     

Simulation of failure under cyclic plastic loading by damage models

The purpose of this work is to simulate the evolution of ductile damage and failure involved by plastic strain reversals using damage models based on either continuum damage mechanics (CDM) or porosity evolution. A low alloy steel for pressure vessels (20MnMoNi55) was chosen as reference material. The work includes both experimental and simulation phases. The experimental campaign involves different kinds of specimens and testing conditions. First, monotonic tensile tests have been performed in order to evaluate tensile and ductile damage behaviour. Then, the cyclic yielding behaviour has been characterized performing cyclic plasticity tests on cylindrical bars. Finally, cyclic loading tests in the plastic regime have been made on different round notched bars (RNBs) to study the evolution of plastic deformation and damage under multiaxial stress conditions. The predictions of the different models were compared in terms of both, the specimens macroscopic response and local damage. Special emphasis was laid on predictions of the number of cycles prior to final failure and the crack initiation loci.     

Effects of inter-fibre spacing on damage evolution in unidirectional (UD) fibre-reinforced composites

A three dimensional (3D) micromechanical study has been performed in order to investigate local damage in UD composite materials under transverse and longitudinal tensile loading. In particular, the influence of non-uniform distribution of fibres in RVEs (representative volume element) with a hexagonal packing array and the effects of thermal residual stresses has been investigated. To examine the effect of inter-fibre spacing and residual stress on failure, a study based on the Maximum Principal Stress failure criterion and a stiffness degradation technique has been used for damage analysis of the unit cell subjected to mechanical loading. Results indicate a strong dependence of damage onset and its evolution from the fibres position within the RVE. Predicted mechanical properties, damage initiation and evolution are also clearly influenced by the presence of residual stress.     

Experimental Results of a Damage Detection Methodology using Variations in Modal Parameters

The present paper reports the results obtained by a methodology of damage detection in which combined EMA and FEM data are used to localise the damage on mechanical components. The utilized method uses the eigenvalues and eigenvectors obtained from FE modelling, compared with the eigenvalues obtained experimentally on damaged specimens. The method assumes a linear behaviour of the materials. Firstly it is applied to rectangular plates in order to test its reliability in discovering the damage located on very simply shaped specimens that are made of homogeneous and isotropic material. The methodology was subsequently applied to mechanical components of complex shape, allowing the location of the damage to be accurately identified.     

Anisotropic damage law of evolution

A formulation for anisotropic damage is established in the framework of the principle of strain equivalence. The damage variable is still related to the surface density of microcracks and microvoids and, as its evolution is governed by the plastic strain, it is represented by a second order tensor and is orthotropic. The coupling of damage with elasticity is written through a tensor on the deviatoric part of the energy and through a scalar taken as its trace on the hydrostatic part. The kinetic law of damage evolution is an extension of the isotropic case. Here, the principal components of the damage rate tensor are proportional to the absolute value of principal components of the plastic strain rate tensor and are a nonlinear function of the effective elastic strain energy. The proposed damage evolution law does not introduce any other material parameter. Several series of experiments on metals give a good validation of this theory. The coupling of damage with plasticity and the quasi-unilateral conditions of partial closure of microcracks naturally derive from the concept of effective stress. Finally, a study of strain localization makes it possible to determine the critical value of the damage at mesocrack initiation.     

Simulation of damage evolution in ductile metals undergoing dynamic loading conditions

A set of constitutive equations for large rate-dependent elastic-plastic-damage materials at elevated temperatures is presented to be able to analyze adiabatic high strain rate deformation processes for a wide range of stress triaxialities. The model is based on the concepts of continuum damage mechanics. Since the material macroscopic thermo-mechanical response under large strain and high strain rate deformation loading is governed by different physical mechanisms, a multi-dissipative approach is proposed. It incorporates thermo-mechanical coupling effects as well as internal dissipative mechanisms through rate-dependent constitutive relations with a set of internal variables. In addition, the effect of stress triaxiality on the onset and evolution of plastic flow, damage and failure is discussed.Furthermore, the algorithm for numerical integration of the coupled constitutive rate equations is presented. It relies on operator split methodology resulting in an inelastic predictor-elastic corrector technique. The explicit finite element program LS-DYNA augmented by an user-defined material subroutine is used to approximate boundary-value problems under dynamic loading conditions. Numerical simulations of dynamic experiments with different specimens are performed and good correlation of numerical results and published experimental data is achieved. Based on numerical studies modified specimens geometries are proposed to be able to detect complex damage and failure mechanisms in Hopkinson-Bar experiments.     

各向同性弹性损伤的双标量描述

损伤状态的描述是损伤力学中仍未完善解决的基本问题．我们旨在对此问题就最简单的一种情形——各向同性弹性损伤，进行较为全面的研究．首先，指出了古典各向同性损伤理论中，基于应变等效假设，用单个标量损伤变量描述损伤状态的局限性．然后，建立了一个用两个标量损伤变量描述的各向同性弹性损伤模型．此模型解除了古典理论的局限，能完全描述各向同性弹性损伤，并且得到本文数值实验的验证．最后，将本文模型与现有细观力学结果连接，给出了宏细观损伤变量之间的关系，使得细观量可以通过宏观量来反映，建立了一个用细观损伤材料常数描述细观缺陷特征的损伤本构模型     

A ductile damage criterion at various stress triaxialities

The paper discusses the effect of stress triaxiality on the onset and evolution of damage in ductile metals. A series of tests including shear tests and experiments on smooth and pre-notched tension specimens was carried out for a wide range of stress triaxialities. The underlying continuum damage model is based on kinematic definition of damage tensors. The modular structure of the approach is accomplished by the decomposition of strain rates into elastic, plastic and damage parts. Free energy functions with respect to fictitious undamaged configurations as well as damaged ones are introduced separately leading to elastic material laws which are affected by increasing damage. In addition, a macroscopic yield condition and a flow rule are used to adequately describe the plastic behavior. Numerical simulations of the experiments are performed and good correlation of tests and numerical results is achieved. Based on experimental and numerical data the damage criterion formulated in stress space is quantified. Different branches of this function are taken into account corresponding to different damage modes depending on stress triaxiality and Lode parameter. In addition, identification of material parameters is discussed in detail.     

A numerical model for reinforced concrete structures

This paper describes a two-dimensional approach to model fracture of reinforced concrete structures under (increasing) static loading conditions. The first part is dedicated to the concrete material. The concrete is described in compression by a non-local isotropic damage constitutive law. In tension, a fictitious crack/crack band model is proposed. The influence of biaxial stress states is incorporated in the constitutive relations. In the second part a bond model is described. It accounts for different failure mechanisms, a pullout failure and a splitting failure. This approach is applied to prestressed concrete beams with different failure mechanisms. The numerical results are compared to experimental data and show good agreement.     

A first-order strain gradient damage model for simulating quasi-brittle failure in porous elastic solids

In order to simulate quasi-brittle failure in porous elastic solids, a continuum damage model has been developed within the framework of strain gradient elasticity. An essential ingredient of the continuum damage model is the local strain energy density for pure elastic response as a function of the void volume fraction, the local strains and the strain gradients, respectively. The model adopts Griffith’s approach, widely used in linear elastic fracture mechanics, for predicting the onset and the evolution of damage due to evolving micro-cracks. The effect of those micro-cracks on the local material stiffness is taken into account by defining an effective void volume fraction. Thermodynamic considerations are used to specify the evolution of the latter. The principal features of the model are demonstrated by means of a one-dimensional example. Key aspects are discussed using analytical results and numerical simulations. Contrary to other continuum damage models with similar objectives, the model proposed here includes the effect of the internal length parameter on the onset of damage evolution. Furthermore, it is able to account for boundary layer effects.