Miguel Patrcio CMUC Polytechnic Institute of Leiria School of Technology and Management

Composites consist of two or more (chemically or physically) different constituents that are bonded together along interior material interfaces and do not dissolve or blend into each other.

Idea: by putting together the right ingredients, in the right way, a material with a better performance can be obtained
Examples of applications: Airplanes Spacecrafts Solar panels Racing car bodies Bicycle frames Fishing rods Storage tanks

Why is cracking of composites worthy of attention?

Even microscopic flaws may cause seemingly safe structures to fail Replacing components of engineering structures is often too expensive and may be unnecessary

It is important to predict whether and in which manner failure might occur

Fracture of composites can be regarded at different lengthscales

Mesoscopic Macroscopic

Microscopic
(atomistic)

10-10

10-6

10-3

10-1

102

LENGTHSCALES

Fracture of composites can be regarded at different lengthscales

Mesoscopic Macroscopic

Microscopic
(atomistic)

10-10

10-6

10-3

10-1

102

Continuum Mechanics

LENGTHSCALES

plate with pre-existent crack Meso-structure; linear elastic components Goal: determine crack path

Macroscopic

Mesoscopic (matrix+inclusions)

It is possible to replace the mesoscopic structure with a corresponding homogenised structure (averaging process)

homogenisation

Mesoscopic

Macroscopic

Will a crack propagate on a homogeneous (and isotropic) medium?

Alan Griffith gave an answer for an infinite plate with a centre through elliptic flaw:

the crack will propagate if the strain energy release

rate G during crack growth is large enough to exceed the rate of increase in surface energy R associated with the formation of new crack surfaces, i.e.,

where is the strain energy released in the formation of a crack of length a is the corresponding surface energy increase

How will a crack propagate on a homogeneous (and isotropic) medium?

y

In the vicinity of a crack tip, the tangential stress is given by:

Crack tip

How will a crack propagate on a homogeneous (and isotropic) medium?

y

In the vicinity of a crack tip, the tangential stress is given by:

Crack tip

How will a crack propagate on a homogeneous (and isotropic) medium?

y

Maximum circumferential tensile stress (local) criterion: Crack growth will occur if the circumferential stress
intensity factor equals or exceeds a critical value, ie.,

Direction of propagation: Crack growth occurs in the direction that maximises the circumferential stress intensity factor

Crack tip

An incremental approach may be set up The starting point is a homogeneous plate with a pre-existent crack

load the plate; solve elasticity problem;

An incremental approach may be set up The starting point is a homogeneous plate with a pre-existent crack

load the plate; solve elasticity problem;

...thus determining:

An incremental approach may be set up The starting point is a homogeneous plate with a pre-existent crack

load the plate; solve elasticity problem; check propagation criterion;

If criterion is met

compute the direction of propagation; increment crack (update geometry);

Incremental approach to predict whether and how crack propagation may occur

The mesoscale effects are not fully taken into consideration

In Basso et all (2010) the fracture toughness of dual-phase austempered ductile iron was analysed at the mesoscale, using finite element modelling. A typical model geometry consisted of a 2D plate, containing graphite nodules and LTF zones

Basso, A.; Martnez, R.; Cisilino, A. P.; Sikora, J.: Experimental and numerical assessment of fracture toughness of dual-phase austempered ductile iron, Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures, 33, pp. 1-11, 2010

Macrostructure

Mesostructure

Basso, A.; Martnez, R.; Cisilino, A. P.; Sikora, J.: Experimental and numerical assessment of fracture toughness of dual-phase austempered ductile iron, Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures, 33, pp. 1-11, 2010

Macrostructure

Results

Basso, A.; Martnez, R.; Cisilino, A. P.; Sikora, J.: Experimental and numerical assessment of fracture toughness of dual-phase austempered ductile iron, Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures, 33, pp. 1-11, 2010

number of graphite nodules in model: 113 number of LTF zones in model: 31 Models were solved using Abaqus/Explicit (numerical package) running on a Beowulf Cluster with 8 Pentium 4 PCs

Macrostructure

Computational issues

Basso, A.; Martnez, R.; Cisilino, A. P.; Sikora, J.: Experimental and numerical assessment of fracture toughness of dual-phase austempered ductile iron, Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures, 33, pp. 1-11, 2010

In Zhu et all (2002) a numerical simulation on the shear fracture process of concrete was performed: The mesoscopic elements in the specimen must be relatively small enough to reflect the mesoscopic mechanical properties of materials under the conditions that the current computer is able to perform this analysis because the number of mesoscopic elements is substantially limited by the computer capacity

Zhu W.C.; Tang C.A.: Numerical simulation on shear fracture process of concrete using mesoscopic mechanical model, Construction and Building Materials, 16(8), pp. 453-463(11), 2002

In Zhu et all (2002) a numerical simulation on the shear fracture process of concrete was performed: The mesoscopic elements in the specimen must be relatively small enough to reflect the mesoscopic mechanical properties of materials under the conditions that the current computer is able to perform this analysis because the number of mesoscopic elements is substantially limited by the computer capacity

Zhu W.C.; Tang C.A.: Numerical simulation on shear fracture process of concrete using mesoscopic mechanical model, Construction and Building Materials, 16(8), pp. 453-463(11), 2002

How will a crack propagate on a material with a mesoscopic structure?

Elasticity problem

Propagation problem

Elasticity problem

Propagation problem - On a homogeneous material, the crack will propagate if

- Cauchys equation of motion

- Kinematic equations - If it does propagate, it will do so in the direction that maximises the circumferential stress intensity factor

- Constitutive equations

+ boundary conditions many inclusions implies high computational costs the crack Interacts with the inclusions

Hybrid approach

Homogenisable

Schwarz Critical region where fracture occurs (overlapping domain decomposition scheme)

Patrcio, M.; Mattheij, R. M. M.; de With, G.: Solutions for periodically distributed materials with localized imperfections; CMES Computer Modeling in Engineering and Sciences, 38(2), pp. 89-118, 2008

Hybrid approach

Homogenisable

Critical region where fracture occurs

Patrcio, M.; Mattheij, R. M. M.; de With, G.: Solutions for periodically distributed materials with localized imperfections; CMES Computer Modeling in Engineering and Sciences, 38(2), pp. 89-118, 2008

Hybrid approach

Homogenisable

Critical region where fracture occurs

Patrcio, M.; Mattheij, R. M. M.; de With, G.: Solutions for periodically distributed materials with localized imperfections; CMES Computer Modeling in Engineering and Sciences, 38(2), pp. 89-118, 2008

Hybrid approach algorithm

Patrcio, M.; Mattheij, R. M. M.; de With, G.: Solutions for periodically distributed materials with localized imperfections; CMES Computer Modeling in Engineering and Sciences, 38(2), pp. 89-118, 2008

How does homogenisation work?

Reference cell
The material behaviour is characterised by a tensor defined over the reference cell

Assumptions:

Then the solution of the heterogeneous problem

Then the solution of the heterogeneous problem

converges to the solution of a homogeneous problem

weakly in

Four different composites plates (matrix+circular inclusions) Linear elastic, homogeneous, isotropic constituents Computational domain is [0, 1] x [0,1]

Material parameters: matrix: inclusions:

The plate is pulled along its upper and lower boundaries with constant unit stress

a) 25 inclusions, periodic

b) 100 inclusions periodic

c) 25 inclusions, random

d) 100 inclusions random

Homogenisation may be employed to approximate the solution of the elasticity problems

Periodical distribution of inclusions Error increases

Error decreases with number of inclusions

Random distribution of inclusions

Highly heterogeneous composite with randomly distributed circular inclusions, submetido

Smaller error

M. Patrcio: Highly heterogeneous composite with randomly distributed circular inclusions, submitted

plate (dimension 1x1) pre-existing crack (length 0.01) layered (micro)structure

E1=1, 1=0.1 E2=10, 2=0.3

plate (dimension 1x1) pre-existing crack (length 0.01) layered (micro)structure

Crack paths in composite materials; M. Patrcio, R. M. M. Mattheij, Engineering Fracture Mechanics (2010)

An iterative method for the prediction of crack propagation on highly heterogeneous media; M. Patrcio, M. Hochstenbach, submitted

Solve the elasticity problem

Compute the direction of propagation

Is the crack tip on the matrix?

Is the crack close to an inclusion?

Does the propagation angle point outwards?

Increment to reach crack interface, using maximum circumferential tensile stress criterion

Increment using maximum circumferential tensile stress criterion

Propagate crack along the interface wall

Reference

Approximation