Related papers: Damage-cluster distributions and size effect on st…
A variety of studies have modeled the physics of material deformation and damage as examples of generalized phase transitions, involving either critical phenomena or spinodal nucleation. Here we study a model for frictional sliding with…
In an effort to investigate the link between failure mechanisms and the geometry of fractures of compacted grains materials, a detailed statistical analysis of the surfaces of fractured Fontainebleau sandstones has been achieved. The…
The topology of the network of load transmitting connections plays an essential role in the cascading failure dynamics of complex systems driven by the redistribution of load after local breakdown events. In particular, as the network…
We study the fatigue fracture of disordered materials by means of computer simulations of a discrete element model. We extend a two-dimensional fracture model to capture the microscopic mechanisms relevant for fatigue, and we simulate the…
This study addresses ductile fracture of single grains in metals by modeling of the formation and propagation of transgranular cracks. A proposed model integrates gradient extended hardening, phase-field modeling for fracture, and crystal…
We review microstructural fracture growth models suitable for the study of hydraulic fracture processes in disordered porous materials and present some basic results. It is shown that microstructural models exhibit certain similarities to…
The classical variational phase-field model for brittle fracture effectively predicts the growth of large pre-existing cracks. However, the modeling of crack nucleation continues to be a significant challenge. Crack nucleation under uniform…
In dense molecular clouds collisions between dust grains alter the ISM-dust size distribution. We study this process by inserting the results from detailed numerical simulations of two colliding dust aggregates into a coagulation model that…
We study the genesis and the selective propagation of complex crack networks induced by thermal shock or drying of brittle materials. We use a quasi-static gradient damage model to perform large scale numerical simulations showing that the…
We study experimentally the fracture mechanisms of a model cohesive granular medium consisting of glass beads held together by solidified polymer bridges. The elastic response of this material can be controlled by changing the cross-linking…
The growth dynamics of a single crack in a heterogeneous material under subcritical loading is an intermittent process; and many features of this dynamics have been shown to agree with simple models of thermally activated rupture. In order…
Amorphous grain boundary complexions act as toughening features within a microstructure because they can absorb dislocations more efficiently than traditional grain boundaries. This toughening effect should be a strong function of the local…
We investigate the effect of thermal fluctuations on the critical stress and the micro-structure of damage preceding macroscopic fracture of Lennard-Jones solids under a constant external load. Based on molecular dynamics simulations of…
This study investigates the influence of fiber spatial distribution on the transverse mechanical properties of unidirectionally reinforced continuous-fiber composites. A Swelling & Random Migration algorithm was employed to generate…
We investigate the fragmentation process of solid materials with crystalline and amorphous phases using the discrete element method. Damage initiates inside spherical samples above the contact zone in a region where the circumferential…
The failure of heterogeneous materials with microstructures is a complex process of damage nucleation, growth and localisation. This process spans multiple length scales and is challenging to simulate numerically due to its high…
In spite of the apparent similarity of micro-branching instabilities in different brittle materials, we propose that the physics determining the typical length- and time-scales characterizing the post-instability patterns differ greatly…
The role of grain size in determining fracture toughness in metals is incompletely understood with apparently contradictory experimental observations. We study this grain-size dependence computationally by building a model that combines the…
This paper presents a framework for modeling failure in quasi-brittle geomaterials under different loading conditions. A micromechanics-based model is proposed in which the field variables are linked to physical mechanisms at the microcrack…
Guided by recent advances in the understanding of nucleation and propagation of fracture in elastic brittle materials, this paper proposes a suite of three simple experiments that permit the measurement of the three macroscopic material…