Related papers: Heterogeneous Interfacial Failure between Two Elas…

The theory, the design and the experimental validation of a catastrophe machine based on a flexible element are addressed for the first time. A general theoretical framework is developed by extending that of the classical catastrophe…

Inspired by reliability issues in electric transmission networks, we use a probabilistic approach to study the occurrence of large failures in a stylized cascading failure model. In this model, lines have random capacities that initially…

We study the damage process of fiber bundles in a wedge-shape geometry which ensures a constant strain gradient. To obtain the wedge geometry we consider the three-point bending of a bar, which is modelled as two rigid blocks glued together…

Following the observations of the self-similarity in various length scales in the roughness of the fractured solid surfaces, we propose here a new model for the earthquake. We demonstrate rigorously that the contact area distribution…

We report tensile failure experiments on paper sheets. The acoustic emission energy and the waiting times between acoustic events follow power-law distributions. This remains true while the strain rate is varied by more than two orders of…

A theoretical and experimental study of the fragmentation of closed thin shells made of a disordered brittle material is presented. Experiments were performed on brown and white hen egg-shells under two different loading conditions:…

While static equilibria of flexible strings subject to various load types (gravity, hydrostatic pressure, Newtonian wind) is well understood textbook material, the combinations of the very same loads can give rise to complex spatial…

We consider a microscopic model for the failure of soft adhesives in tension based on ideas of bond rupture under dynamic loading. Focusing on adhesive failure under loading at constant velocity, we demonstrate that bi-modal curves of…

Viscoelasticity is well known to cause significant hysteresis of crack closure and opening when an elastomer is brought in and out of contact with a flat, rigid, adhesive counterface. A separate origin of adhesive hysteresis is small-scale,…

This paper quantitatively evaluates structural failure of biaxial cohesionless ellipsoids that have a two-density-layer distribution. The internal density layer is modeled as a sphere, while the external density layer is the rest of the…

Investigation of inhomogeneities has wide applications in different areas of mechanics including the study of composite materials. Here, we analytically study an arbitrarily-shaped isotropic inhomogeneity embedded in a finite-sized…

We study the nucleation and development of crack patterns in thin composite fibers under tension in this work. A fiber comprises an elastic core and an outer layer of a weaker brittle material. In recent tensile experiments on such…

We study the existence of distinct failure regimes in a model for fracture in fibrous materials. We simulate a bundle of parallel fibers under uniaxial static load and observe two different failure regimes: a catastrophic and a slowly…

Topologically interlocked structures are architectured by fitting together blocks that are constrained geometrically through contact and friction by their neighboring blocks. As long as the frictional strength is nowhere exceeded, the…

We report tensile failure experiments on polyurethane (PU) foams. Experiments have been performed by imposing a constant strain rate. We work on heterogeneous materials for whom the failure does not occur suddenly and can develop as a…

The failure of adhesive bondlines has been studied at the microscopic level via tensile tests. Stable crack propagation could be generated by means of samples with improved geometry, which made in-situ observations possible. The interaction…

Fractal patterns are observed in computational mechanics of elastic-plastic transitions in two models of linear elastic/perfectly-plastic random heterogeneous materials: (1) a composite made of locally isotropic grains with weak random…

We examine the nonequilibrium nature of two-phase fluid displacements in a quasi-two-dimensional medium (a model open fracture), in the presence of localized constrictions ("defects"), from a theoretical and numerical standpoint. Our…

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…

Thermal welding of polymer-polymer interfaces is important for integrating polymeric elements into devices. When two different polymers are joined, the strength of the weld depends critically on the degree of immiscibility. We perform…