Related papers: Buckling and yield strength estimation of architec…

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…

Friction is fundamental to mechanical stability across scales, from geological faults and architectural structures to granular materials and animal feet. We study the mechanical stability of a minimal friction-stabilized structure composed…

Structural stability is a necessary condition for successful construction of an assembly. However, designing a stable assembly requires a non-trivial effort since a slight variation in the design could significantly affect the structural…

When stretched uniaxially, a thin elastic sheet may exhibit buckling. The occurrence of buckling depends on the geometrical properties of the sheet and the magnitude of the applied strain. Here we show that an elastomeric sheet initially…

An elasto-plastic model for concrete, based on a recently-proposed yield surface and simple hardening laws, is formulated, implemented, numerically tested and validated against available test results. The yield surface is smooth and…

In this report we present a study on the strength of rocks which are partially fractured from before. We have considered a two dimensional case of a rock in the form of a lattice structure. The fiber bundle model is used for modelling the…

Inspired by natural cellular materials such as trabecular bone, lattice structures have been developed as a new type of lightweight material. In this paper we present a novel method to design lattice structures that conform with both the…

The fracture resistance of structures is optimised using the level-set method. Fracture resistance is assumed to be related to the elastic energy released by a crack propagating in a normal direction from parts of the boundary which are in…

This paper investigates the effects of plasticity on the effective fracture toughness. A layered material is considered as a modelling system. An elastic-plastic phase-field model and a surfing boundary condition are used to study how the…

This work proposes a novel theoretical framework of robust limit analysis i.e. the computation of limit loads of structures in presence of uncertainties using limit analysis and robust optimization theories. We first derive generic robust…

This paper examines various ways of improving the impact resilience of protective structures. Such structures' purpose is to dissipate an impact's energy while avoiding cracking and failure. We have tested the reaction of plane…

Recent advances in additive manufacturing methods make it possible, for the first time, to manufacture complex micro-architectured solids that achieve desired stress versus strain responses. Here, we report experimental measurements and…

We develop a numerical methodology for the calculation of mode-I R-curves of brittle and elastoplastic lattice materials, and unveil the impact of lattice topology, relative density and constituent material behavior on the toughening…

Traditional member-based two-step design approaches included in current structural codes for steel structures, as well as more recent system-based direct-design alternatives, require building rigorous structural reliability frameworks for…

We introduce a lattice model able to describe damage and yielding in heterogeneous materials ranging from brittle to ductile ones. Ductile fracture surfaces, obtained when the system breaks once the strain is completely localized, are shown…

All solids yield under sufficiently high mechanical loads. Below yield, the mechanical responses of all disordered solids are nearly alike, but above yield every different disordered solid responds in its own way. Brittle systems can…

We consider a plate made from an isotropic but brittle elastic material, which is used to span a rigid aperture, across which a small pressure difference is applied. The problem we address is to find the structure which uses the least…

This paper addresses testing of compressed structures, such as shells, that exhibit catastrophic buckling and notorious imperfection sensitivity. The central concept is the probing of a loaded structural specimen by a controlled lateral…

We analyse the buckling stability of a thin, viscous sheet when subject to simple shear, providing conditions for the onset of the dominant out-of-plane modes using two models: (i) an asymptotic theory for the dynamics of a viscous plate…

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…