W. Brocks¹

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring, Vol.1, No.4, pp. 233-244, 2005, DOI:10.3970/sdhm.2005.001.233

Abstract A review on phenomenological fracture criteria is given, based on the energy balance for cracked bodies, and the respective toughness parameters are related to micromechanical processes. Griffith's idea of introducing a "surface energy" and Barenblatt's concept of a "process zone" ahead of the crack tip build the foundation of modern cohesive models, which have become versatile tools for numerical simulations of crack extension. The cohesive strength and the separation energy used as phenomenological material parameters in these models appear to represent a physically significant characterisation of "fracture toughness". Micromechanical interpretations of these parameters can be More >

S. Glodež¹, B. Aberšek¹, G. Fajdiga², J. Flašker²

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring, Vol.1, No.3, pp. 215-224, 2005, DOI:10.3970/sdhm.2005.001.215

Abstract A computational model for simulation of surface and subsurface initiated fatigue crack growth due to contact loading is presented. The model is based on fracture mechanics theory where the required materials properties are obtained from common fatigue tests. For computational simulations an equivalent model of two contacting cylinders is used instead of simulating the actual contact of mechanical elements. The discretised model with the initial crack on or under the surface is then subjected to normal contact pressure, which takes into account the elasto-hydro-dynamic (EHD) lubrication conditions, and tangential loading due to friction between contacting More >

A. Rama Ch,ra Murthy¹, G.S. Palani¹, Nagesh R. Iyer¹

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring, Vol.1, No.3, pp. 203-214, 2005, DOI:10.3970/sdhm.2005.001.203

Abstract This paper presents an improved Wheeler residual stress model for remaining life prediction of the cracked structural components under variable amplitude loading. The improvement to the Wheeler residual stress model is in two folds. One is expressions for the shaping exponent, which are generally obtained through experiments. Another is calculation of effective plastic zone size to incorporate the sequent effects under tensile-compressive overloading. The remaining life prediction has been carried out by employing the linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) principles. Studies on remaining life prediction of cracked plate panels subjected to tensile-compressive overloading have been More >

D.Taylor¹

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring, Vol.1, No.2, pp. 145-154, 2005, DOI:10.3970/sdhm.2005.001.145

Abstract The Theory of Critical Distances (TCD) is a general term for any of those methods of analysis which use continuum mechanics in conjunction with a characteristic material length constant, L. This paper discusses the use of two simple versions of the TCD: a point-stress approach which we call the Point Method (PM) and a line-average approach: the Line Method (LM). It is shown that they are able to predict the onset of unstable, brittle fracture in specimens of metallic materials containing notches of varying root radii. The approach was successful whatever the micromechanism of crack… More >

G.S. Palani¹, Nagesh R. Iyer¹, B. Dattaguru²

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring, Vol.1, No.2, pp. 107-120, 2005, DOI:10.3970/sdhm.2005.001.107

Abstract A posteriori error estimation and adaptive refinement technique for 2-D/3-D crack problems is the state-of-the-art. In this paper a new a posteriori error estimator based on strain energy release rate (SERR) or stress intensity factor (SIF) at the crack tip region has been proposed and used along with the stress based error estimator for reliable fracture analysis of 2-D crack problems. The proposed a posteriori error estimator is called the K-S error estimator. Further, h-adaptive mesh refinement strategy which can be used with K-S error estimator has been proposed for fracture analysis of 2-D crack problems. The performance More >

R. Moskovic¹, P. E. J. Flewitt^1,2

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring, Vol.1, No.1, pp. 83-94, 2005, DOI:10.3970/sdhm.2005.001.083

Abstract Consideration of the structural integrity is one of the inputs when evaluating potential solutions to plant problems. Structural integrity assessments of components forming the pressure boundaries of nuclear plant evaluate safety margins against cleavage fracture. These assessments consider the reserve factors between the applied stress and fracture toughness of the material as well as temperature margins between the operating temperature and the temperature at which the steel is ductile as defined by upper shelf behaviour. To carry out these structural integrity assessments, estimates of cleavage fracture toughness are required. The approach presented in this paper… More >

M. Mashayekhi¹, S. Ziaei-Rad², J. Parvizian³, K. Nikbin¹, H. Hadavinia¹

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring, Vol.1, No.1, pp. 67-82, 2005, DOI:10.3970/sdhm.2005.001.067

Abstract The continuum mechanical simulation of microstructural damage process is important in the study of ductile fracture mechanics. An essential feature in these analyses, is the strong influence of stress triaxiality ratio, i.e. the ratio of mean stress to equivalent stress, on the rate of damage growth. In this paper, finite element simulation of damage evolution and fracture initiation in ductile solids will be investigated. A fully coupled constitutive elastic-plastic-damage model has been implemented. The stress update algorithm for the constitutive model is presented together with the consistent tangent operator, which is needed for implicit FEA. More >

R. Matsumoto¹, M. Nakagaki¹, A. Nakatani², H. Kitagawa³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.9, No.1, pp. 75-84, 2005, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2005.009.075

Abstract In this paper, the internal structure-changes around the crack-tip and the pertinent crack growth behavior in an amorphous metal were studied by a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. In order to perform a large scale calculation, the domain decomposition method was used for parallel calculation. The Finnis-Sinclair potential for$\alpha$-iron was used to describe the interatomic potential. Computed results show that nano-scaled crystalline phase grows around the crack-tip. The distribution of deformation zones and deformation mechanism are significantly altered. While grains are relatively small, they are not deformed, and the most amorphous-crystal interfaces have a large strain More >

Wen-Hwa Chen¹, Cheng-Hung Chen²

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.8, No.3, pp. 177-190, 2005, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2005.008.177

Abstract An enriched meshless method, using meshless interpolations and a global Galerkin approach, is developed for the analysis of three-dimensional fracture problems. The displacement field which accounts for the stress singularity nearby the crack front and the boundary layer effect at the intersection between the crack front and the free surface of the structure is adopted to enrich the trial functions. The three-dimensional stress intensity factors can thus be treated as independent unknown parameters and calculated with the nodal displacements directly. To estimate the accuracy of the method developed, several representative three-dimensional cracks are analyzed. These More >

J. Purbolaksono¹, M. H. Aliabadi^2,3

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.8, No.1, pp. 73-90, 2005, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2005.008.073

Abstract This paper presents the dual boundary integral equations for the buckling analysis of the shear deformable cracked plates. The domain integrals which appear in this formulation are transferred to boundary integrals using the dual reciprocity method. The plate buckling displacement and hypersingular traction integral equations are presented as a standard eigenvalue problem, which would allow direct evaluation of the critical load factor and buckling modes. Several examples with different geometries and boundary conditions are presented to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed formulation. More >