International Journal of Damage Mechanics

The present experimental work investigates the response of woven glass fabric reinforced polyamide 6.6/6 subjected to drop weight impact loading. The main objective is the development and the introduction of a new experimental procedure/approach, based on different complementary detection techniques, that aims at investigating the damage induced by impact loading in thermoplastic woven fabric composites. The developed approach is intended to be generalized to other types of composite materials. The main idea is to assess all the experimental results obtained through the developed procedure with a direct investigation method. The latter consists in the Permanent Indentation (PI) measurement providing an indicator of the damage criticality in the composite sample. To this end, several non-destructive testing methods are carried-out and their experimental findings are analyzed and cross-linked. The identification of the different damage mechanisms, caused by the drop weight impact, is performed using X-Ray micro-computed tomography (µCT). C-scan ultrasonic investigation is conducted according to two types: transmission and reflection for the detection of the impact damage and the identification of the induced degradation area. B-scan imaging are then obtained through specific post-processing of the impacted surface to extract the permanent indentation (PI). The latter is validated through surface flatness measurement using the highly resolved 3D optical profilometry. The correlation between the X-Ray tomography results and the permanent indentation measurement is then established. It correlates the PI level with the damage mechanisms of a barely visible impact damage (BVID) in woven glass reinforced polyamide 6.6/6 composite.

The freezing method is widely used in the construction of vertical shafts in water-rich strata. The formed frozen rock wall is often involved in the creep process, and in particular, the creep behavior of frozen fissured rock mass poses a great threat to construction safety. To better understand the creep instability law of ice-filled, fractured red sandstone under freezing and triaxial stress conditions, a series of triaxial creep tests on frozen red sandstone specimens containing a single, pre-existing flaw at −10°C and under a confining pressure of 4 MPa were carried out with a self-developed DRTS-500 subzero rock triaxial testing system. The multistage loading creep curves were obtained, and the evolution laws of deformation and damage for the frozen specimens in the primary (instantaneous), secondary (steady-state) and tertiary (accelerating) phases were analyzed. The nonlinear visco-elastoplastic constitutive model of red sandstone with a single ice-filled flaw was established according to the fractional calculus theory and the Kachanov damage theory. The results show that the initial creep property, unstable creep property and creep failure mode of frozen single-flaw red sandstone are significantly affected by the flaw dip angle. The proposed creep damage model can accurately describe the complete creep curves of frozen red sandstone with a single ice-filled flaw, especially in the unstable creep stage. The influences of the stress level and flaw dip angle on the creep parameters were analyzed, and sensitivity analyses of the characteristic creep parameters were carried out to verify the reliability and rationality of our creep model. This research can be applied to the assessment of collapse, cracking and other long-term failures and hence can be used as a theoretical basis of design in the freezing engineering of coal mine shafts.

A new ductile fracture criterion is proposed based on three stages of ductile fracture: void nucleation, growth and coalescence from the microscopic viewpoint. Based on the observation of SEM fracture surfaces of AA2024-T351 aluminum alloy sheet and bar samples under different stress states, it is assumed that the void aggregation is controlled by shear or shear-tension fracture mechanism according to the stress state. And the stress triaxiality is deemed as the only influence factor for controlling the void growth. The new ductile fracture criterion applied to a wide range of stress triaxiality is built. By fitting the available testing data of AA2024-T351 aluminum alloy and AISI 1045 steel, the fracture loci in the stress triaxiality, Lode parameter and equivalent fracture strain space ( η , L , ε ¯ f ) built by the new criterion are compared with those by DF2014, Hu criterion, modified Mohr-Coulomb criterion (MMC) and Hosford- Coulomb (H-C) criterion. The fitting results prove better prediction accuracy for the new criterion. To further compare the stability of these criteria, the fracture loci in the space of ( η , L , ε ¯ f ) for AA2024-T351 alloy are established by only fitting five tests. The new criterion can still well predict the equivalent fracture strain ( ε ¯ f ). Compared with DF2014, Hu criterion, MMC and H-C criterion, the average errors of the new criterion are reduced by 26.72%, 20.07%, 31.78% and 34.62%, respectively. Furthermore, the maximum errors are reduced by 49.62%, 27.31%, 33.76% and 29.91%, separately. Therefore, the new fracture criterion has higher prediction accuracy and better prediction stability. Last but certainly not least, the new criterion can predict more accurately under high stress triaxiality conditions.

The effect of salt spray and salt solution on the fatigue properties of 2024-T3 aluminum alloy plate used for aircraft fuselage structure have been investigated by combining Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technology with in-situ corrosion fatigue test. For this purpose, an in-situ corrosion fatigue platform was designed for gas and liquid phases. Fatigue experimental investigation was carried out in salt spray and salt solution environments respectively, the crack propagation process was monitored by the DIC technology and the influences of NaCl concentration on fatigue life and crack growth rate were analyzed under the two kinds of corrosive environments. Moreover, the failure mechanism is discussed based on the micro-morphology of fracture and the composition of corrosion products. Experimental results demonstrated that for the corrosion fatigue in salt spray environment, there is a competition between the hydrogen embrittlement and the crack tip closure effect caused by corrosion products, which results in fatigue life decreasing with the increase of NaCl concentration first and then increasing. The fatigue life (with 3.50 wt.% NaCl salt spray) is the lowest, which is 82.9% of that in air, while the fatigue life (with 5.00 wt.% NaCl salt spray) is 112.6% of that in air. But for the corrosion fatigue in the NaCl salt solution environment, there is no obvious crack tip closure effect. In the 5.00 wt.% NaCl salt solution environment, fatigue life is 74.2% of that in air. The microfractures and strain nephogram of specimens revealed the stress concentration caused by corrosion pits, which might be the main factor for the decrease of fatigue life.

In order to determine the effect of different loads on fatigue damage, a strength degradation model is proposed according to the law of residual strength degradation of metal materials. The model is verified with the strength degradation test data, and the results show that the model can describe the strength degradation process of general metal materials well. Combined with the strength degradation model, an improved equivalent damage model for different loading sequences is proposed. On this basis, a nonlinear fatigue cumulative damage model based on strength degradation is derived. The cumulative damage model is applied to the estimation of fatigue residual life under two-, three-, and four-stage loads to investigate the effects of different loading sequence on fatigue damage under various loading conditions. Combining with experimental data, it is verified that the cumulative damage model can accurately estimate the fatigue life under two-, three-, and four-stage loads.

Masonry arch bridges, which were generally built using brick and stone materials, still form a significant part of the highway and railway networks in the World. The subsoil deformability may considerably affect seismic damage mechanics of masonry arch bridges. The paper investigates the effects of nonlinear foundation soil behavior on the seismic damage mechanisms of brick and stone semicircular masonry arch bridges. Direct soil-structure interaction (SSI) approach is taken into account in the 3 D finite element models of the masonry arch bridge-foundation-soil interaction systems including contact, finite and infinite elements. Nonlinear behaviors of masonry units and homogenous soil domain are modeled using the Concrete Damage Plasticity (CDP) and Mohr-Coulomb failure criteria. The selected ground motion is matched and deconvoluted for hard and medium soil domains. Seismic damage mechanisms of brick and stone masonry arch bridges subjected to combined longitudinal and vertical deconvolved ground motion components are obtained for hard, medium, and partially hard and medium soil domains and are compared with each other.

The creep characteristics of joint have an important influence on the long-term stability of rock mass engineering such as tunnels and slopes. In this paper, the sawtooth angle α is taken as the variable, five different numerical models of regular sawtooth joints are established using the discrete element numerical method, to study the shear mechanical characteristics of joints under creep condition. In addition, the shear mechanical properties of joints under transient condition are compared to analysis the influence of creep on the mechanical characteristics of joint. The results show that under shear creep condition: (1) Shear displacement of joint increases stepwise with time. At low sawtooth angles, the difference of joint shear displacement with different normal stresses is large. The long-term shear strength of joint is proportional to normal stress and sawtooth angle. (2) The total absorbed energy U and elastic energy U^e of the joint both increase as the sawtooth angle α increases. Dissipated energy U^d tends to increase first and then decrease with increasing sawtooth angle. Compared with the energy characteristics under transient condition, it is found that the joint under creep condition not only has a lower shear strength, but also requires less total absorbed energy and dissipative energy, and fewer cracks at critical failure. (3) Before the peak strength, the damage variable D increases nonlinearly with the shear displacement. Compared with the transient condition, the damage amount corresponding to the peak strength under the creep condition is smaller, and the evolution rate of the damage variable D with shear displacement at the critical failure is higher.