Activation energy based extreme value statistics and size effect in brittle and quasibrittle fracture

Because the uncertainty in current empirical safety factors for structural strength is far larger than the relative errors of structural analysis, improvements in statistics offer great promise. One improvement, proposed here, is that, for quasibrittle structures of positive geometry, the understrength factors for structural safety cannot be constant but must be increased with structures size. The statistics of safety factors has so far been generally regarded as independent of mechanics, but further progress requires the cumulative distribution function (cdf) to be derived from the mechanics and physics of failure. To predict failure loads of extremely low probability (such as 10^-6 to 10^-7) on which structural design must be based, the cdf of strength of quasibrittle structures of positive geometry is modelled as a chain (or series coupling) of representative volume elements (RVE), each of which is statistically represented by a hierarchical model consisting of bundles (or parallel couplings) of only two long sub-chains, each of them consisting of sub-bundles of two or three long sub-sub-chains of sub-sub-bundles, etc., until the nano-scale of atomic lattice is reached. Based on Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of thermal energies of atoms, the cdf of strength of a nano-scale connection is deduced from the stress dependence of the interatomic activation energy barriers, and is expressed as a function of absolute temperature T and stress-duration τ (or loading rate 1/τ). A salient property of this cdf is a power-law tail of exponent 1. It is shown how the exponent and the length of the power-law tail of cdf of strength is changed by series couplings in chains and by parallel couplings in bundles consisting of elements with either elastic-brittle or elastic-plastic behaviors, bracketing the softening behavior which is more realistic, albeit more difficult to analyze. The power-law tail exponent, which is 1 on the atomistic scale, is raised by the hierarchical statistical model to an exponent of m=10 to 50, representing the Weibull modulus on the structural scale. Its physical meaning is the minimum number of cuts needed to separate the hierarchical model into two separate parts, which should be equal to the number of dominant cracks needed to break the RVE. Thus, the model indicates the Weibull modulus to be governed by the packing of inhomogeneities within an RVE. On the RVE scale, the model yields a broad core of Gaussian cdf (i.e., error function), onto which a short power-law tail of exponent m is grafted at the failure probability of about 0.0001-0.01. The model predicts how the grafting point moves to higher failure probabilities as structure size increases, and also how the grafted cdf depends on T and τ. The model provides a physical proof that, on a large enough scale (equivalent to at least 500 RVEs), quasibrittle structures must follow Weibull distribution with a zero threshold. The experimental histograms with kinks, which have so far been believed to require the use of a finite threshold, are shown to be fitted much better by the present chain-of-RVEs model. For not too small structures, the model is shown to be essentially a discrete equivalent of the previously developed nonlocal Weibull theory, and to match the Type 1 size effect law previously obtained from this theory by asymptotic matching. The mean stochastic response must agree with the cohesive crack model, crack band model and nonlocal damage models. The chain-of-RVEs model can be verified and calibrated from the mean size effect curve, as well as from the kink locations on experimental strength histograms for sufficiently different specimen sizes.     

Modeling the microstructural evolution of metallic polycrystalline materials under localization conditions

In general, the shear localization process involves initiation and growth. Initiation is expected to be a stochastic process in material space where anisotropy in the elastic-plastic behavior of single crystals and inter-crystalline interactions serve to form natural perturbations to the material's local stability. A hat-shaped sample geometry was used to study shear localization growth. It is an axi-symmetric sample with an upper “hat” portion and a lower “brim” portion with the shear zone located between the hat and brim. The shear zone length was 870-890 μm with deformation imposed through a Split-Hopkinson Pressure Bar system at maximum top-to-bottom velocity in the range of 8-25 m/s. The deformation behavior of tantalum tophat samples is modeled through direct polycrystal simulations. An embedded Voronoï-tessellated two-dimensional microstructure is used to represent the material within the shear zone of the sample. A thermo-mechanically coupled elasto-viscoplastic single crystal model is presented and used to represent the response of the grains within the aggregate shear zone. In the shoulder regions away from the shear zone where strain levels remain on the order of 0.05, the material is represented by an isotropic J₂ flow theory based upon the elasto-viscoplastic Mechanical Threshold Stress (MTS) model for flow strength. The top surface stress versus displacement results were compared to those of the experiments and over-all the simulated stress magnitude is over-predicted. It is believed that the reason for this is that the simulations are two-dimensional. A region within the numerical shear zone was isolated for statistical examination. The vonMises stress state within this isolated shear zone region suggests an approximate normal distribution with a factor of two difference between the minimum and maximum points in the distribution. The equivalent plastic strain distribution within this same region has values ranging between 0.4 and 1.5 and is not symmetric. Other material state distributions are also given. The crystallographic texture within this isolated shear zone is also compared to the experimental texture and found to match reasonably well considering the simulations are two-dimensional.     

Response statistics of van der Pol oscillators excited by white noise

The joint probability density function of the state space vector of a white noise exoited van der Pol oscillator satisfics a Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov (FPK) equation. The paper describes a numerical procedure for solving the transient FPK equation based on the path integral solution (PIS) technique. It is shown that by combining the PIS with a cubic B-spline interpolation method, numerical solution algorithms can be implemented giving solutions of the FPK equation that can be made accurate down to very low probability levels. The method is illustrated by application to two specific examples of a van der Pol oscillator.     

脆性断裂的概率统计方法

针对脆性材料的破坏问题，根据缺陷累计失效概率的概念，得到了脆性材料发 生破坏的概率公式，它是缺陷密度和缺陷累计失效概率的函数，同时缺陷累计失效概率又是 应力的函数；指出某些研究者所提出破坏概率公式是此概率公式的特例；分析了缺陷数密度 和缺陷累计失效概率对试件破坏的影响；利用所得到的破坏概率公式和概率统计的知识，给 出了碎片的尺寸和数目的分布公式.     

Entangled coherent states for quantum information processing

Entangled coherent states (ECSs) with relative phase equal to the phase shift between two coherent states are constructed. We study the degree of entanglement and the nonclassical features exhibited by the so-constructed states keeping in view their role in quantum information processing (QIP).     

基于t-Copula的一篮子信用违约互换定价模型

为了刻画分布函数的厚尾特征和违约的传染性,构建了单因子t-Copula模型,以此研究一篮子信用违约互换(BDS)的定价问题。依据风险中性定价原理和顺序统计量方法,分别得到了第k次违约和n个参照实体中m个受保护的BDS价格的解析式.为了说明定价模型的有效性,用随机模拟方法分析了相应的数值算例.     

Topological quantum-phase coherence in full counting statistics of transport electrons with two-body interaction

The full counting statistics of electron transport through two parallel quantum dots with antiparallel magnetic fluxes is investigated as a probe to detect the topological quantum-phase coherence （TQPC）, which results in the characteristic oscillation of the zero-frequency cumulants including the shot noise and skewness. We show explicitly the phase transition of cumulant spectrum-patterns induced by the topology change of electron path-loops while the pattern period, which depends only on the topology （or Chern number）, is robust against the variation of Coulomb interaction and interdot coupling strengths. Most importantly we report for the first time on a new type of TQPC, which is generated by the two- particle interaction and does not exist in the single-particle wave function interference. Moreover, the accurately quantized peaks of Fano-factor spectrum, which characterize the super- and sub-Poissonian shot noises, are of fundamental importance in technical applications similar to the superconducting quantum interference device.