Related papers: Enhanced fault-tolerance in biomimetic hierarchica…
We study experimentally the slow growth of a single crack in a fibrous material and observe stepwise growth dynamics. We model the material as a lattice where the crack is pinned by elastic traps and grows due to thermally activated stress…
Accurately predicting when and how materials fail is critical to designing safe, reliable structures, mechanical systems, and engineered components that operate under stress. Yet, fracture behavior remains difficult to model across the…
We formulate a theoretical model of the shear failure of a thin film tethered to a rigid substrate. The interface between film and substrate is modeled as a cohesive layer with randomly fluctuating shear strength/fracture energy. We…
We present an extension of the continuous damage fiber bundle model to describe the gradual degradation of highly heterogeneous materials under an increasing external load. Breaking of a fiber in the model is preceded by a sequence of…
We present a novel approach to understand geometric-incompatibility-induced rigidity in under-constrained materials, including sub-isostatic 2D spring networks and 2D and 3D vertex models for dense biological tissues. We show that in all…
Brain tissue is a heterogeneous material, constituted by a soft matrix filled with cerebrospinal fluid. The interactions between, and the complexity of each of these components are responsible for the non-linear rate-dependent behaviour…
This paper investigates the effect of moisture content upon the degradation behaviour of composite materials. A coupled phase field framework considering moisture diffusion, hygroscopic expansion, and fracture behaviour is developed. This…
Understanding the evolution of dislocation structures during plastic deformation is critical for predicting the mechanical performance of metallic materials. In this work, we applied in situ scanning electron microscopy/electron backscatter…
We have developed a simulation technique that uses non-linear finite element analysis and elastic fracture mechanics to compute physically plausible motion for three-dimensional, solid objects as they break, crack, or tear. When these…
Materials are often heterogeneous at various length scales, with variations in grain structure, defects, and composition which has a strong influence on the emergent macroscopic plastic behavior. In particular, heterogeneities lead to…
The fracture simulation of random particle reinforced composite structures remains a challenge. Current techniques either assumed a homogeneous model, ignoring the microstructure characteristics of composite structures, or considered a…
Soft materials such as rubbers, hydrogels, and biological tissues undergo damage in the form of stiffness degradation without apparent changes in their stress-free geometry. Accurate simulation of this behavior is critical in applications…
We investigate fracture toughness of architected interfaces and their ability to maintain structural integrity and provide stable damage propagation conditions beyond the failure load. We propose theoretical and numerical frameworks to…
One of the biggest perceived challenges in building megastructures, such as the space elevator, is the unavailability of materials with sufficient tensile strength. The presumed necessity of very strong materials stems from a design…
The fracture and severing of polymer chains plays a critical role in the failure of fibrous materials and the regulated turnover of intracellular filaments. Using continuum wormlike chain models, we investigate the fracture of semiflexible…
The hardest materials in living organisms are biologically grown crystalline minerals, or biominerals, which are also incredibly fracture-tough. Biomineral mesostructure includes size, shape, spatial arrangement, and crystal orientation of…
Many fibrous materials are modeled as elastic networks featuring a substantial separation between the stiffness scales that characterize different microscopic deformation modes of the network's constituents. This scale separation has been…
Fatigue fracture is one of the main causes of failure in structures. However, the simulation of fatigue crack growth is computationally demanding due to the large number of load cycles involved. Metals in the low cycle fatigue range often…
The aim of this paper is to present the technique (and its linkage with physics) of overcoming problems connected to modeling social structures, which are typically hierarchical. Hierarchical Linear Models provide a conceptual and…
Superhard materials with good fracture toughness have found wide industrial applications, which necessitates the development of accurate hardness and fracture toughness models for efficient materials design. Although several macroscopic…