Related papers: Crack formation and self-closing in shrinkable, gr…
The relevant parameters at the microstructure scale that govern the macroscopic toughness of disordered brittle materials are investigated theoretically. We focus on planar crack propagation and describe the front evolution as the…
In this study, we address damage initiation and micro-crack formation in ductile failure of polycrystalline metals. We show how our recently published thermodynamic framework for ductile phase-field fracture of single crystals can be…
Rock weathering is a common phenomenon in most engineering applications, such as underground storage or geothermal energy. This work offers a discrete element modelization of the problem considering cohesive granular material and debonding…
A recent model showed how a clay shrinkage curve is step-by-step transformed into the shrinkage curve of an aggregated soil at any clay content if it is measured on samples so small that cracks do not occur at shrinkage. Such a shrinkage…
Brittle materials fail catastrophically. In consequence of their limited flaw-tolerance, failure occurs by localized fracture and is typically a dynamic process. Recently, experiments on epithelial cell monolayers have revealed that this…
The properties of slow crack growth in brittle materials are analyzed both theoretically and experimentally. We propose a model based on a thermally activated rupture process. Considering a 2D spring network submitted to an external load…
During drying of colloidal suspensions, colloidal particles can form concentrated particle layers beneath the receding free surface. The drying rate can gradually decrease with the growth of the particle layers. We construct a model to…
Previous studies demonstrate that grain-boundary sliding could accelerate creep rate and give rise to large internal stresses that can lead to damage development, e.g. formation of wedge cracks. The present study provides more insight into…
Swelling is a volumetric-growth process in which a porous material expands by spontaneous imbibition of additional pore fluid. Swelling is distinct from other growth processes in that it is inherently poromechanical: Local expansion of the…
Numerical simulations of assemblies of grains under cyclic loading exhibit ``granular ratcheting'': a small net deformation occurs with each cycle, leading to a linear accumulation of deformation with cycle number. We show that this is due…
Dispersed colloidal particles within a suspension can aggregate and spontaneously self-organize into a robust, percolating structure known as a gel. These network-like structures are prevalent in nature and play a critical role in many…
This study proposes a new analytical model for grain boundary pinning by second phase particles in two-dimensional polycrystals. This approach not only considers how particles impede grain growth, but also elucidates their role in…
Using discrete element simulations based on molecular dynamics, we investigate the mechanical behavior of sheared, dry, frictional granular media in the "dense" and "critical" regimes. We find that this behavior is partitioned between…
We investigate the effect of fragmentation on the homogeneous free cooling of inelastic hard spheres, using Boltzmann kinetic theory and Direct Monte Carlo simulations. We analyze in detail a model where dissipative collisions may…
We employ a novel fluid-particle model to study the shearing behavior of granular soils under different saturation levels, ranging from the dry material via the capillary bridge regime to higher saturation levels with percolating clusters.…
Granular crystallisation is an important phenomenon whereby ordered packing structures form in granular matter under vibration. However, compared with the well-developed principles of crystallisation at the atomic scale, crystallisation in…
Building materials such as concretes and mortar are formed by solidifying granular slabs. Such materials are often fractured by giant forces such as during earthquakes, leading to the collapse of structures and potentially casualties. One…
We explore the effect of shape -- jagged vs. regular -- in the jamming limit of very gently shaken packings. Our measure of shape $\eps$ is the void space occupied by a disordered grain; we show that depending on its number-theoretic…
Cracks in soft materials exhibit diverse dynamic patterns, involving straight, oscillation, branching, and supershear fracture. Here, we successfully reproduce these crack morphologies in a two-dimensional pre-strained fracture scenario and…
Despite extensive studies on either smooth granular-fluid flow or the solid-like deformation at the slow limit, the change between these two extremes remains largely unexplored. By systematically investigating the fluctuations of tightly…