Related papers: Tuning load redistribution and damage near heterog…
We investigate the role of architected thin films in the interfacial failure properties of bi-layer composites. Our results show that, while graded structures can be used to prescribe failure at the interface, they do not offer significant…
Understanding the role played by the microstructure of materials on their macroscopic failure properties is an important challenge in solid mechanics. Indeed, when a crack propagates at a heterogeneous brittle interface, the front is…
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…
Multi-material lightweight designs, e.g. the combination of aluminum with fiber-reinforced composites, are a key feature for the development of innovative and resource-efficient products. The connection properties of such bi-material…
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…
Green hydrogen is likely to play a major role in decarbonising the aviation industry. It is crucial to understand the effects of microstructure on hydrogen redistribution, which may be implicated in the embrittlement of candidate fuel…
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…
The propagation of an adhesive crack through an anisotropic heterogeneous interface is considered. Tuning the local toughness distribution function and spatial correlation is numerically shown to induce a transition between weak to strong…
Many geologic materials have a composite structure, in which macroscopic mechanical behavior is determined by the properties, shape, and heterogeneous distribution of individual constituents. In particular, sedimentary rocks commonly…
Hierarchical microstructures are often invoked to explain the high resilience and fracture toughness of biological materials such as bone and nacre. Biomimetic material models inspired by those structural arrangements face the obvious…
Fractures are a critical process in how materials wear, weaken, and fail whose unpredictable behavior can have dire consequences. While the behavior of smooth cracks in ideal materials is well understood, it is assumed that for real,…
The application of hybrid composites in lightweight engineering enables the combination of material-specific advantages of fiber-reinforced polymers and classical metals. The interface between the connected materials is of particular…
The failure of brittle solids involves, before macroscopic rupture, power-law distributed avalanches of local rupture events whereby microcracks nucleate and grow, which are also observed in for an elastic interface evolving in a…
Multiscale techniques have been widely shown to potentially overcome the limitation of homogenization schemes in representing the microscopic failure mechanisms in heterogeneous media as well as their influence on their structural response…
We reveal intrinsic fracture nonreciprocity, manifesting as directional asymmetry in crack resistance, in two-dimensional heterostructures engineered through lattice-mismatched interfaces. Density-functional theory combined with…
The developed computational approach is capable of initiating and propagating cracks inside materials and along material interfaces of general multi-domain structures under quasi-static conditions. Special attention is paid to particular…
Functionalized thin elastic films and membranes frequently feature internal sites of net forces or stresses. These are, for instance, active sites of actuation, or rigid inclusions in a strained membrane that induce counterstress upon…
Composites with high strength and high fracture resistance are desirable for structural and protective applications. Most composites, however, suffer from poor damage tolerance and are prone to unpredictable fractures. Understanding the…
Additive manufacturing methods together with topology optimization have enabled the creation of multiscale structures with controlled spatially-varying material microstructure. However, topology optimization or inverse design of such…
Quasi-brittle materials endowed with (statistically) self-similar hierarcical microstructures show distinct failure patterns that deviate from the standard scenario of damage accumulation followed by crack nucleation-and-growth. Here we…