International Journal of Damage Mechanics

In the present work, elasto-plastic creep crack growth simulations are performed using continuum damage mechanics and extended finite element method. Liu–Murakami creep damage model and explicit time integration scheme are used to evaluate the creep strain and damage variable for various materials at different temperatures. Compact tension and C-shaped tension specimens are selected for the simulation of crack growth analysis. For damage evaluation, both local and nonlocal approaches are employed. The accuracy of the extended finite element method solutions is checked by comparing with experimental results and finite element solutions. These results show that the extended finite element method requires a much coarser mesh to effectively model crack propagation. It is also shown that mesh independent results can be achieved by using nonlocal implementation.

The present study evaluates fatigue damage of four steel alloys, mild steel, SS347, SNCM439, and SNCM630, by means of Socie, Ellyin, and Varvani-Farahani damage models. The Socie model assesses fatigue damage through product of maximum principal strain amplitude and maximum normal stress on the maximum principal strain plane. Damage description by Ellyin was developed as both elastic and plastic strain energies over loading spectrum were integrated. The elastic–plastic response of materials is evaluated through use of Garud’s constitutive plasticity model to achieve components of stress/ strain and corresponding stress–strain hysteresis loops. Based on the Varvani-Farahani model, components of stress and strain calculated from largest Mohr’s circles over peak-valley events are employed to assess fatigue damage. Overall damage was calculated on the basis of energy-based models from counted reversals over entire loading blocks and related to fatigue life. The Socie approach overpredicted lives for steel samples. Predicted life data for mild steel and SS347 samples fell below the midline based on the Ellyin’s model. Both Ellyin and Varvani-Farahani models showed a good agreement of predicted lives for steel samples within factors ±3 as compared with experimental data. The choice of damage assessment was highly related to consistency of damage descriptions to crack formation and early growth, stress/strain components, material properties, and loading spectrum.

The deformation and damage characteristics of surrounding rock grow gradually with the increase of mining depth, and the mechanical behavior and damage mechanism of coal–rock materials vary greatly. In order to reveal the deformation and damage dynamic characteristics of coal–rock materials in deep mines, the macroscopic deformation characteristics of coal, rock, and concrete samples under uniaxial compression were studied. The macroscopic deformation amount, velocity, and acceleration of different samples were analyzed. The coal and rock samples exhibit regular dynamic characteristics before they lose stability and fail. The axial strain response of the coal samples changes significantly during the compact and elastic deformation stages. Besides, the relationship between the surface damage and the macroscopic deformation of sample was studied by means of visualization and image processing. The macroscopic deformation index of coal–rock materials changes significantly before and after the destabilization and failure. Based on the deformation and failure dynamic characteristics of coal and rock, the evolution rule of deformation critical values was taken as the deformation and destruction stages, which revealed the dynamic characteristics during the deformation and failure process of coal–rock materials in deep mines. The deformation critical values can be used to realize early warning of deformation and fracture of coal and rock materials in deep mines.

A micromechanics-based equivalent elastoplastic damage model for both notch-sensitive and multiple cracking hybrid fiber reinforced composite is proposed in this study. In this model, the elastic modulus, first cracking strength, and ultimate strength are estimated based on micromechanics. To quantify strain after matrix cracks, a novel characteristic length is defined based on the damage mechanics. The effects of the fiber length, diameter and modulus, and interfacial bond stress on the characteristic length of hybrid fiber reinforced composite are presented. In order to avoid the difficulty of determining the traditional damage and plastic potential function, this model is developed from the behavior of single fiber at mesolevel to the response of hybrid fiber reinforced composite at macrolevel. Then the calculated results are verified with several published experimental results of fiber reinforced composites and hybrid fiber reinforced composite, including notch-sensitive cracking fiber reinforced composite, multiple cracking fiber reinforced composite, and multiple cracking hybrid fiber reinforced composite reinforced with two types of fibers (steel fiber and polyethylene fiber). A parametric study has been performed to investigate the effects of the fiber properties, including the fiber volume fraction, length, diameter, and interfacial bond stress, on the tensile performance of hybrid fiber reinforced composite reinforced with steel fiber-like and polyethylene fiber-like fibers. The results indicate that enhancement of the tensile performance can be achieved more effectively by improving the polyethylene fiber-like fiber than steel fiber-like fiber.

The present contribution aims to examine the erosion behavior of soda-lime-silica glass in connection with damage interaction and angle effects. Experimental observations are reported on glass plates subjected to sandblasting process using alumina abrasive particles for different sandblasting durations and impact angles. The damage and erosion mechanisms are computed through a numerical model of the sandblasted glass plate. The glass internal stiffness degradation due to impact process is accounted for by an anisotropic stress-based continuum damage mechanics model. The glass erosion is simulated by means of a vanishing element technique using the critical values of damage components as failure criterion. A parametric numerical study is carried out to bring insights into damage interaction and angle effects on the material loss.

In quasi-brittle polycrystalline materials, damage by cracking or cleavage dominates plastic and viscous deformation. This paper proposes a micromechanical model for rock-like materials, incorporating the elastic-damage accommodation of the material matrix, and presents an original method to solve the system of implicit equations involved in the formulation. A self-consistent micromechanical approach is used to predict the anisotropic behavior of a polycrystal in which grain inclusions undergo intragranular damage. Crack propagation along planes of weakness with various orientation distributions at the mineral scale is modeled by a softening damage law and results in mechanical anisotropy at the macroscopic scale. One original aspect of the formulated inclusion–matrix model is the use of an explicit expression of Hill’s tensor to account for matrix ellipsoidal anisotropy. To illustrate the model capabilities, a uniaxial compression test was simulated for a variety of polycrystals made of two types of mineral inclusions with each containing only one plane of weakness. Damage always occurred in only one mineral type: the damaging mineral was that with a smaller shear modulus (respectively higher bulk modulus) when bulk modulus (respectively shear modulus) was the same. For two minerals with the same shear moduli but different bulk moduli, the maximum damage in the polycrystal under a given load was obtained at equal mineral fractions. However, for two minerals with different shear moduli, the macroscopic damage was not always maximum when the volume fraction of two minerals was the same. When the weakness planes’ orientations in the damaging mineral laid within a narrow interval close to the loading direction, the macroscopic damage behavior was more brittle than when the orientations were distributed over a wider interval. Parametric studies show that upon proper calibration, the proposed model can be extended to understand and predict the micro–macro behavior of different types of quasi-brittle materials.