Calibration of Stress-triaxiality Dependent Crack Formation Criteria: A New Hybrid Experimental–Numerical Method

A new experimental technique has been developed to investigate the onset of fracture in metals at low and intermediate stress triaxialities. The gage section of a flat specimen has been designed such that cracks are most likely to initiate within the specimen center, remote from the specimen boundaries. Along with the specimen, a biaxial testing device has been built to apply a well-defined displacement field to the specimen shoulders. The stress state within the specimen is adjusted by changing the biaxial loading angle. Using this new experimental technique, the crack initiation in metals can be studied experimentally for stress triaxialities ranging from 0.0 to 0.6. The stress and strain fields within the specimen gage section are determined from finite element analysis. The reliability of the computational model of the test set-up has been verified by comparing the simulation results with laser speckle-interferometric displacement measurements during testing. Sample experiments have been performed on the Al-7Si-Mg gravity die casting alloy. A three-step hybrid experimental–numerical calibration procedure has been proposed and applied to determine a phenomenological crack formation criterion for the Al-7Si-Mg alloy.

Mechanics of rubber shear springs

FEA calculations have been carried out for a model rubber shear spring, consisting of a block of a highly elastic material, bonded between two rigid parallel plates and sheared by displacing one of the plates parallel to the other in its own plane. The block was prevented from deforming in the perpendicular direction, and thus was deformed in plane strain. Stress distributions along the bond-line and the center-line are reported and compared with those expected from the theory of large elastic deformations. Unexpected tensile stresses were found to develop in the interior of the sheared block. They are attributed to the absence on the end surfaces of the stresses needed to maintain a simple shear, causing a pronounced change in the reference pressure—a consequence that is usually overlooked. Because the internal stresses are governed by the boundary conditions, they were strongly affected by the shape of the end surfaces. In addition, they were reduced markedly by assigning values to Poisson's ratio slightly lower than 0.5, thus allowing some volume expansion of the rubber. Strain energy release rates were also evaluated for growth of a crack along the bond-line, starting at the edges, and compared with those reported previously by Lindley and Teo [Energy for crack growth at the bonds of rubber springs, Plast. Rubber Mat. Appl. 4 (1979) 29-37], Muhr et al. [A fracture mechanics study of natural rubber-to-metal bond failure, J. Adhes. Sci. Technol. 10 (1996) 593-616], Gregory and Muhr [Stiffness and fracture analysis of bonded rubber blocks in simple shear, in: D. Boast, V.A. Coveny (Eds.), Finite Element Analysis of Elastomers, Professional Engineering Publications, Bury St. Edmunds, UK, 1999, pp. 265-274] and Gough and Muhr [Initiation of failure of rubber close to bondlines, in: Proceedings of the International Rubber Conference, Maastricht, Netherlands, June 2005, IOM Communications Ltd., London, 2005, pp. 165-174]. They confirm that a long crack at the compression edge will grow faster than one at the tension edge, but the results for short cracks were inconclusive.     

Understanding crack growth in fuselage lap joints

The problem of multi-site damage and multiple interacting cracks is one experienced by many aircraft manufacturers and operators. This paper focuses on understanding the phenomena, and on developing a predictive capability that can form the engineering framework for maintaining continued airworthiness. To this end the present paper uses a simple formulation based on the Frost–Dugdale crack growth law to study the problem of cracking at fastener holes in fuselage lap joints and shows that the predicted crack growth history is in good agreement with both experimental results and with fleet data.     

Modified boundary layer analysis of an electrode in an electrostrictive material

A thin electrode embedded in an electrostrictive material under electric loading is investigated. In order to obtain an asymptotic form of electric fields and elastic fields near the electrode edge, we consider a modified boundary layer problem of an electrode in an electrostrictive material under the small scale saturation condition. The exact electric solution for the electrode is obtained by using the complex function theory. It is found that the shape of the electric displacement saturation zone is sensitive to the transverse electric displacement. A perturbation solution of stress fields induced by incompatible electrostrictive strains for the small value of the transverse electric displacement is obtained. The influence of transverse electric displacement on a microcrack initiation from the electrode edge is also discussed.     

Discussion on electromagnetic crack face boundary conditions for the fracture mechanics of magneto-electro-elastic materials

This paper discusses electromagnetic boundary conditions on crack faces in magneto- electroelastic materials, where piezoelectric, piezomagnetic and magnetoelectric effects are coupled. A notch of finite thickness in these materials is also addressed. Four idealized electromagnetic boundary conditions assumed for the crack-faces are separately investigated, i.e. (a) electrically and magnetically impermeable (crack-face), (b) electrically impermeable and magnetically permeable, (c) electrically permeable and magnetically impermeable, and (d) electrically and magnetically permeable. The influence of the notch thickness on important parameters, such as the field intensity factors, the energy release rate at the notch tips and the electromagnetic fields inside the notch, are studied and the results are obtained in closed-form. Results under different idealized electromagnetic boundary conditions on the crack-face are compared, and the applicability of these idealized assumptions is discussed.The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10102004) The English text was polished by Yunming Chen.     

From crack deflection to lattice vibrations—macro to atomistic examination of dynamic cleavage fracture

A set of cleavage experiments with strip-shaped single-crystal silicon specimens subjected to three-point bending is reported. The experiments enabled examination of the relationships between the dynamic energy release rate, the velocity, the orientation-dependent cleavage energy, and the cleavage plane of propagation.Dynamic crack propagation experiments show that when a [0 0 1] silicon single crystal is fractured under three-point bending at ‘parallel’ velocity (directly measured at the bottom surface of the specimen) of up to , it prefers to cleave along the vertical (1 1 0) plane, while when the specimen is fractured under the same conditions but at a velocity higher than , it cleaves along the inclined (1 1 1) plane. At intermediate velocities, the crack will deflect from the (1 1 0) plane to the (1 1 1) plane. Crack velocity was determined by the initial notch length. The local (calculated) velocity of deflection between the cleavage planes ranges from , for a crack propagating on the (1 1 0) plane in the direction, to about , for a crack on the (1 1 0) plane, but in the [0 0 1] direction.It is suggested that the cause of the deflection phenomenon is the anisotropic, velocity-dependent cleavage energy, resulted phonon radiation caused by anisotropic, velocity-dependent lattice vibrations. We have studied the effect of material properties and propose selection criteria to explain the deflection phenomenon: the crack will deflect to the plane of least-energy, for which G−Γ_i(V)=max, or to the plane with maximum crack tip velocity, V_i(Γ)=max.     

Quasistatic Viscoelastic Contact with Normal Compliance and Friction

We prove the existence of a unique weak solution to the quasistatic problem of frictional contact between a deformable body and a rigid foundation. The material is assumed to have nonlinear viscoelastic behavior. The contact is modeled with normal compliance and the associated version of Coulomb's law of dry friction. We establish the continuous dependence of the solution on the normal compliance function. Moreover, we prove the existence of a unique solution to the problem of sliding contact with wear. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Pseudo global energy released locally by crack extension involving multiscale reliability

The energy release rate criterion, being mono scale by definition, is incompatible with the failure behavior of solids that are inherently dual, if not, multiscale. Time span of reliability is scale sensitive and can be addressed with consistency only by use of transitional functions that are designed to transform a function from one scale to another. A pseudo transitional energy release rate G^∗ is defined to address the cross-scaling properties of energy release rate. The reliability of such a function is found to fall quickly when the scale range deviates from that of micro-macro. In general, the time span of reliability based on G^* shortens considerably within the nano-micro and pico-nano scale ranges, resulting in fast turnover of system usability. Prediction accuracy tends to be scale range specific. Stress or strain based criteria are also mono scale. They may be adequate for some situations at the macroscopic scale, but can be ambiguous for multiscale problems. These situations are analyzed by application of the principle of least variance in conjunction with the R-integrals.Accelerated test data for the equivalent of 20 years’ fatigue crack growth in 2024-T3 aluminum panels were analyzed using the mutliscale reliability model. A time span plateau within the micro-macro range is from 8 to 17 years. This corresponds to the reliable portion of prediction, while the terminal 3 years are regarded as unreliable. A similar time span plateau were also found from 4 to 6 years within the nano-micro scale range. And an even smaller plateau hovering around 1.2 years were found for the pico-nano scale range. Time span of reliable prediction narrows with down sized scale range. The overlapping ends of the scale ranges are rendered unreliable as anticipated. These regions can be suppressed by the addition of meso scale ranges. Reference can be made to past discussions related to multiscaling and mesomechanics.     

ANALYSIS OF NANOBRIDGE TESTS

This paper analyzes nanobridge tests with consideration of adhesive contact deformation, which occurs between a probe tip and a tested nanobeam, and deformation of a substrate or template that supports the tested nanobeam.Analytical displacement-load relation, including adhesive contact deformation and substrate deformation, is presented here for small deformation of bending.The analytic results are confirmed by finite element analysis.If adhesive contact deformation and substrate deformation are not considered in the analysis of nanobridge test data, they might lead to lower values of Young＇s modulus of tested nanobeams.     

Cracking in D6ac steel

This paper examines the results of an extensive test program undertaken to study crack growth in D6ac steel and shows that in each case the increment in the crack length per cycle (da/dN) conforms to the Generalised Frost-Dugdale crack growth law. This is found to be true for both constant K_max, constant R ratio load increasing, and compression-compression pre-cracking tests in the L-T, T-L and the S-T directions.