Search results for "Fracture Mechanics"
showing 10 items of 102 documents
Design and use of a Fatigue Test Machine in Plane Bending for Composite Specimens and Bonded Joints
2011
Polymeric and composites materials are increasingly used in industry as structural parts, so that specific information on their mechanical properties "at long term" (creep, relaxation, fatigue) are requested. The design and implementation of these components also requires that they are permanently connected together to perform certain functions. The use of adhesives in structural joints has increased over recent years thanks to the continuous development by companies which provide the market with adhesive having better and better mechanical properties. The main areas relate to the aerospace, aeronautical and automotive industries, where requirements are required for lightness and reliabilit…
Fracture Toughness of PIR Foams Produced from Renewable Resources
2012
Rigid low-density closed-cell polyisocyanurate (PIR) foams are used primarily as a thermal insulation material. Traditionally, they are manufactured from constituents produced by petrochemical industry. Introducing renewable materials in PIR formulation brings definite economical and environmental benefits. Fracture toughness of PIR foams obtained from renewable resources (with the polyol system comprising up to 80% of rapeseed oil esters) and petrochemical PIR foams has been characterized experimentally, by compact tension tests, for mode I crack propagation along the rise direction of the foams.
Internal spring distribution for quasi brittle fracture via Symmetric Boundary Element Method
2009
Abstract In this paper the symmetric boundary element formulation is applied to the fracture mechanics problems for quasi brittle materials . The basic aim of the present work is the development and implementation of two discrete cohesive zone models using Symmetric Galerkin multi-zone Boundary Elements Method . The non-linearity at the process zone of the crack will be simulated through a discrete distribution of nodal springs whose generalized (or weighted) stiffnesses are obtainable by the cohesive forces and relative displacements modelling. This goal is reached coherently with the constitutive relation σ − Δ u that describes the interaction between mechanical and kinematical quantities…
On the transient response of actively repaired damaged structures by the boundary element method
2010
The transient fracture mechanics behavior of damaged structures repaired through active piezoelectric patches is presented in this paper. The analyses have been performed through a boundary element code implemented in the framework of piezoelectricity to take account of the coupling between the elastic and the electric fields, which represents the peculiar feature of piezoelectric media. The multi-domain technique has been also involved to assemble the host structures and the active patches and to model the cracks. Moreover, the patches have been considered elastically bonded to the damaged structure by means of a zero thickness adhesive layer. This has been achieved through the implementat…
Modelling unilateral damage effect in strongly anisotropic materials by the introduction of the loading mode in damage mechanics
1999
Abstract Damage weakens the mechanical characteristics of materials. But this weakening can disappear if the cracks close again: this is called the unilateral effect of damage. We propose a model of this phenomenon using damage mechanics in the case of a diffuse network of identical microcracks. The microcracks state is defined with two internal state variables. These two variables are control parameters of the geometry of the microcracks. They also define the loading mode in damage mechanics as in fracture mechanics. In order to limit the anisotropy induced by the microcracks, hence by the loading, we suppose that the geometry of damage spreads into preferential directions. Therefore, this…
Fatigue crack growth in welds based on a V-notch model for the short crack propagation at the toe
2018
Abstract This work presents a new fatigue crack growth prediction model for non-load-carrying fillet welded steel joints. For this joint configuration the fatigue cracks will emanate from the weld toe region. Due to the presence of a V-notch in this region the crack initiation point becomes a point of singularity for the stress field. This may in many cases make it difficult to determine the Stress Intensity Factor Range (SIFR) for small cracks by conventional methods based on Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM). The present approach solves this problem by using the Energy Release Rate (ERR) to determine the SIFR in the small crack growth regime. The model is fitted to crack growth cur…
Thermodynamics and continuum fracture mechanics for nonlocal-elastic plastic materials
2002
Nonlocal elasticity is used as an improved elasticity model which engenders no crack-tip stress singularities and thus makes applicable the classical stress-based failure criteria. Considering nonlocal-elastic plastic materials exposed to softening by particle decohesion in a process surface and to subsequent surface separation by fracture, fracture mechanics is addressed within the framework of irreversible internal-variable thermodynamics in the hypothesis of small strains and arbitrary (but sufficiently regular) fracture surface (crack surface plus process surface). The state equations and the energy dissipation densities are derived for the bulk material and for the process surface, for…
Crack growth analysis at adhesive–adherent interface in bonded joints under mixed mode I/II
2008
The propagation of an interface crack subjected to mixed mode I/II was investigated for two 2024-T351 aluminum thin layers joined by means of DP760 epoxy adhesive produced by 3M©. On the basis of beam theory, an analytical expression for computing the energy release rate is presented for the mixed-mode end loaded split (MMELS) test. The analytical strain energy release rate was compared by finite element (FE) analysis using the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT). Several fatigue crack growth tests were carried out in a plane bending machine to compare the experimental energy release rates to those of the analytical and FE solutions. Experimental results showed the relationship between t…
Finite fracture mechanics analysis of crack onset at a stress concentration in a UD glass/epoxy composite in off-axis tension
2010
The presence of stress concentrations at holes and notches is known to reduce the strength of composite materials. Due to complexity of the damage processes at a stress raiser in a composite, different modeling approaches have been developed, ranging from empirical point and average stress criteria to involved damage mechanics or cohesive zone-based models of failure. Finite fracture mechanics approach with a coupled stress and energy failure criterion, recently developed and applied mainly to cracking in homogeneous isotropic materials, allows predicting the appearance and propagation of a crack using material strength and toughness characteristics obtained from independent tests. The pres…
Debonding failure mechanisms in prestressed CFRP/epoxy/concrete connections
2014
Abstract This paper presents an investigation on the failure mode in prestress force-release tests of CFRP strips bonded to concrete substrates. Background of the study is the gradient anchorage technique. Firstly, experimental test series are presented. It is shown that considerable differences in failure mechanisms between lap-shear and the before mentioned release tests exist. The study reveals a strong Mode I-influence in the debonding process, compared to a Mode II for lap-shear tests. Secondly, FE simulations with a commercially available software are introduced. It is demonstrated that delamination in a force-release test occurs by a mixed-mode failure over the strip width.