Related papers: Universal behavior in fragmenting brittle, isotrop…
Predicting the growth of large cracks in brittle materials is a fundamental unresolved problem in fracture mechanics. Under out-of-plane shear loading, an initially planar crack may fragment into multiple cracks, forming an echelon crack…
Inertial particles suspended in many natural and industrial flows undergo coagulation upon collisions and fragmentation if their size becomes too large or if they experience large shear. Here we study this coagulation-fragmentation process…
We present a theoretical and experimental study of the fragmentation of closed thin shells made of a disordered brittle material. Experiments were performed on brown and white hen egg-shells under two different loading conditions: impact…
Dispersing small particles in a liquid can produce surprising behaviors when the solids fraction becomes large: rapid shearing drives these systems out of equilibrium and can lead to dramatic increases in viscosity (shear-thickening) or…
In this work, a higher-order irrotational strain gradient plasticity theory is studied in the small strain regime. A detailed numerical study is based on the problem of simple shear of a non-homogeneous block comprising an elastic-plastic…
While crack nucleation and propagation in the brittle or quasi-brittle regime can be predicted via variational or material-force-based phase field fracture models, these models often assume that the underlying elastic response of 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…
We present an experimental and theoretical study of the fragmentation of polymeric materials by impacting polypropylene particles of spherical shape against a hard wall. Experiments reveal a power law mass distribution of fragments with an…
We study the brittle fragmentation of spheres by using a three-dimensional Discrete Element Model. Large scale computer simulations are performed with a model that consists of agglomerates of many particles, interconnected by beam-truss…
Impact-induced fragmentation is a fundamental dissipative process in geosciences, yet its stochastic nature makes predicting debris evolution a persistent challenge. Here, we introduce a discrete element framework to resolve fragmentation…
In order to understand the nature of friction in closely-packed granular materials, a discrete element simulation on granular layers subjected to isobaric plain shear is performed. It is found that the friction coefficient increases as the…
To investigate the barrier effect of grain boundaries on the propagation of avalanche-like plasticity at the atomic-scale, we perform three-dimensional molecular dynamics simulations by using simplified polycrystal models including…
Recently acoustic signature of dislocation avalanches in HCP materials was found to be long tailed in size and energy, suggesting critical dynamics. Even more recently, the intermittent plastic response was found to be generic for micro-…
Differential shrinkage in particulate quasi-brittle materials causes microcracking which reduces durability in these materials by increasing their mass transport properties. A hydro-mechanical three-dimensional periodic network approach was…
Stress-strain relations for random packings of entangling chains under triaxial compression can exhibit strain stiffening and sustain stresses several orders-of-magnitude beyond typical granular materials. X-ray tomography reveals the…
We study the crushing strength of brittle materials whose internal structure (e.g., mineral particles or graining) presents a layered arrangement reminiscent of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. Taking a discrete-element approach, we probe…
The strain-rate sensitivity of confined granular materials has been widely explored, with most findings exhibiting rate-strengthening behaviors. This study, however, reveals a distinct rate-softening behavior across a certain strain rate…
When an amorphous material is strained beyond the point of yielding it enters a state of continual reconfiguration via dissipative, avalanche-like slip events that relieve built-up local stress. However, how the statistics of such events…
The quasistatic behavior of a simple 2D model of a cohesive powder under isotropic loads is investigated by Discrete Element simulations. The loose packing states, as studied in a previous paper, undergo important structural changes under…
In this letter, structural rigidity concepts are used to understand the origin of instabilities in granular aggregates. It is shown that: a) The contact network of a noncohesive granular aggregate becomes exactly isostatic in the limit of…