Prediction of crack evolution and effective elastic behavior of damage-tolerant brittle composites

H. K. Lee, S. Šimunović

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

A constitutive model based on a combination of a fracture-mechanics based model and micromechanical formulations is developed to predict the crack evolution and effective mechanical behavior of damage-tolerant brittle composites. The constitutive model is cast in a rate form and considers microcrack nucleation rate and microcrack growth rate. The effective moduli of the composites containing different crack distributions are formulated using the self-consistent method and differential scheme. The constitutive model is then implemented into finite element codes to solve boundary value problems of the composites. Numerical simulations on a benchmark problem are carried out to illustrate the model features. Finally, to further assess the validity of the present framework, the present predictions are compared with experimental data on brittle composites.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)118-133
Number of pages16
JournalComputer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering
Volume196
Issue number1-3
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2006

Funding

This research was sponsored by (1) the US Department of Energy, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Transportation Technologies, Lightweight Materials Program, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC; and (2) the Ministry of Science and Technology, Korea, for the financial support by a grant (NC33676, R11-2002-101-02004-0) from the Smart Infra-Structure Technology Center (SISTeC), Korea. The authors would like to thank the reviewer for his/her elaborated comments on the original manuscript. The first author would also like to thank Dr. D.K. Shin (Myongji University), and Mr. B.R. Kim and Mr. S.K. Ha (KAIST) for conducting the relevant simulations.

Keywords

  • Degradation of stiffness
  • Experimental comparison
  • Fracture-mechanics based model
  • Nucleation and growth of microcracks
  • Randomly distributed cracks and aligned cracks

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