Related papers: How criticality meets bifurcation in compressive f…
We investigate numerically and theoretically the precursory intermittent activity characterizing the preliminary phase of damage accumulation prior to failure of quasi-brittle solids. We use a minimal but thermodynamically consistent model…
Acoustic emission (AE) measurements performed during the compressive loading of concrete samples with three different microstructures (aggregate sizes and porosity) and four sample sizes revealed that failure is preceded by an acceleration…
A subcritical load on a disordered material can induce creep damage. The creep rate in this case exhibits three temporal regimes viz. an initial decelerating regime followed by a steady-state regime and a stage of accelerating creep that…
We investigate compressive failure of heterogeneous materials on the basis of a continuous progressive damage model. The model explicitely accounts for tensile and shear local damage and reproduces the main features of compressive failure…
Cavitation has long been recognized as a crucial predictor, or precursor, to the ultimate failure of various materials, ranging from ductile metals to soft and biological materials. Traditionally, cavitation in solids is defined as an…
Soft materials, such as liquids, polymers, foams, gels, colloids, granular materials, and most soft biological materials, play an important role in our daily lives. From a mechanical viewpoint, soft materials can easily achieve large…
We investigate the approach to catastrophic failure in a model porous granular material undergoing uniaxial compression. A discrete element computational model is used to simulate both the micro-structure of the material and the complex…
The rigidity transition occurs when, as the density of microscopic components is increased, a disordered medium becomes able to transmit and ensure macroscopic mechanical stability, owing to the appearance of a space-spanning rigid…
Crack growth is the basic mechanism leading to the failure of brittle materials. Engineering addresses this problem within the framework of continuum mechanics, which links deterministically the crack motion to the applied loading. Such an…
Failure of amorphous solids is fundamental to various phenomena, including landslides and earthquakes. Recent experiments indicate that highly plastic regions form elongated structures that are especially apparent near the maximal shear…
The acoustic emission of fracture precursors is measured in heterogeneous materials. The statistical behaviour of these precursors is studied as a function of the load features and the geometry. We find that the time interval between events…
The failure of materials and interfaces is mediated by cracks, nearly singular dissipative structures that propagate at velocities approaching the speed of sound. Crack initiation and subsequent propagation -- the dynamic process of…
Frictional instabilities in fluid saturated granular materials underlie natural hazards, including submarine landslides and earthquake initiation. Experiments show distinct failure behaviors under subaerial and subaqueous conditions due to…
The fact that a disordered material is not constrained in its properties in the same way as a crystal presents significant and yet largely untapped potential for novel material design. However, unlike their crystalline counterparts,…
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…
One of the major factors governing the mode of failure in disordered solids is the effective range $R$, over which the stress field is modified following a local rupture event. In random fiber bundle model, considered as a prototype of…
The acoustic emission of fracture precursors, and the failure time of samples of heterogeneous materials (wood, fiberglass) are studied as a function of the load features and geometry. It is shown that in these materials the failure time is…
The failure of 2D numerical cohesive granular steps collapsing under gravity are simulated for a large range of cohesion. Focussing on the cumulative displacement of the grains, and defining a displacement threshold, we establish a sensible…
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…
We analyze a bifurcation phenomenon associated with critical gravitational collapse in a family of self-gravitating SU(2) $\sigma$-models. As the dimensionless coupling constant decreases, the critical solution changes from discretely…