Our paper titled "Lattice modeling of chloride diffusion in sound and cracked concrete" has been accepted for publication by Cement and Concrete Composites journal. It deals with numerical modeling of chloride transport coupled with fracture. Registered subscribers can download the paper at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0958946513000899 .

More news can be found at our official project blog: http://microlab-m3c4.blogspot.nl/

Can someone answer me if Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman void growth model is not suitable for flyer-plate impact simulations? I have come across some papers who have derived void growth equations to simulate fracture in ductile mateials like OFHC copper etc., subject to plate impact (uniaxial strain high strian rate loading). I have attached 3 of them. But none of them have used Gurson's yield function. I did not find any explanation if GTN model has any drawbacks in simulating spallation phenomena found in plate impact simulations.

Only Worswick and co-workers have used Gurson's model to simulate spallation in plate impact of brass. They have validated their free surface velocity profile with the experimental data.

Thanks,

Siva Prasad AVS.

Numerical
Simulation of Particle Stress and Fracture using FEMDEM: Application to Process
Catalysts

Johnson
Matthey CASE/EPSRC PhD Studentship Award- Duration 36 months

The 6th International PhD Student Workshop on Durability of Reinforced
Concrete will be held in Delft, The Netherlands, during July 4 and 5,
2013, hosted by TUDelft. After a series of successful workshops, most
recently in Espoo (2012), Madrid (2010) and Guimarães (2009), IPSW2013
will be held under the auspices of RILEM EAC (Educational Activities
Committee), aiming to bring together young researchers in the field of
durability of concrete.

This workshop, aimed at PhD students dealing with concrete durability (in a broad sense), is free of charge.

More info can be found at: http://www.citg.tudelft.nl/actueel/congressen-en-symposia/events-materia...

Can any one tel how to simulate numericall and analytically fracture in polymers?

For more information click on

http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/mecheng/phd/projects/composite-aerospace-stru...

Hi

is there a way to get the characteristic length of one element? I wanna calculate xult (when the element is cracked, fracutred..). 

 I use the concrete damage plasticity model and after reaching the tensile strength i assume a linear softening with fracture energy.

Input are:

   Young´s modulus

   max. tensile strength

   fracture energy

Outpu:

   when do i reach xult or what is the plastic strain equivalent

A new opening for PhD studies has come out at University of Sheffield:

Computational Mechanics of Fracture on Advanced Composite Aerospace Structures using XFEM

For further details click on http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/mecheng/phd/projects/mechanics-of-materials/fracture-composite-structures

or email to jlcurie@yahoo.es

The fatigue behavior of Ag films on polyethyleneterephthalate substrates was studied using electrical resistance measurements.
Scanning electron microscopy images showed two types of failure: typical fatigue failure with extrusion–intrusion pairs, and ductile
failure with local necking. Once through-thickness cracks are formed in the metal layer, cracks propagate and the resistance increases abruptly for both failure modes. The effect of adhesion on fatigue life is discussed in terms of concurrent delamination, crack initiation and propagation.

The paper has been published in Scripta Materialia and can be downloaded from:

Recently accepted for publication in Soft Matter:

(http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2013/SM/C2SM27375F)

(http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c2sm27375f)

Dear colleagues,

We are organizing a symposium titled "Fundamentals of Fracture" at the 2013 Spring Meeting of the German Physical Society, taking place in Regensburg, Germany.

The aim of this international symposium is to bring together specialists from the fields of solid state physics, materials science, continuum mechanics, statistical physics and mathematics to discuss  the latest scientific developments related to fundamental mechanisms and physics of fracture.

Supervision:
Dr JP Latham, Dr Jiansheng Xiang
Industry Contacts:
Principal Investigator - Dr Michele Marigo
Co-investigators - Dr Mikael Carlsson, Prof Hugh Stitt

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship to join AMCG (Applied Modelling and Computational Group) in the Department of Earth Science & Engineering.

Dear all,

Please find enclosed our paper which is published on Journal of Multiscale Modelling
Vol. 3, No. 4 (2011) 1–42 which gives an overview of state of the art multiscale techniques for material modeling. 

The paper discusses the following topics: homogenization, Representative volume element, computational homogenization (Fe2 methods) for both both bulk materials and strong discontinuities. 

I hope the paper is useful for beginners to the field.

All the bests, 

Hello everyone,

One of the papers from the 'past' (but still quite actual...I think) and maybe of some interest to various communities. 

Abstract:

A system in which one adherend had two types of surface treatment was tested using a wedge test.

Simple polishing and polishing with subsequent sandblasting were the

treatments used, with a distinct straight line, perpendicular to the sample edges,

separating the two. Despite the clear-cut difference in surface treatment, smooth

transitions in crack growth speed were noted. This can be explained by the

existence of a curved crack front, encroaching gradually on one surface-treated

ME/PhD Positions open:   Fracture Simulation for Visual Effects

Dear all,

 Today our colleague Zhiwei Qian defended his PhD thesis titled: Multiscale modeling of fracture processes in cementitious material. We would like to congratulate Dr Qian on achieving this. The full thesis is available for download at: http://repository.tudelft.nl/view/ir/uuid:734b276c-283a-4f7a-8db2-a18445...

For furher news on our project, follow our blog at: http://microlab-m3c4.blogspot.nl

Regards,

Branko

A polymeric gel consists of a polymer network swollen by small solvent molecules. It could be synthesized from a monomer solution through gelation or from a dry elastomer directly through swelling. The swelling capability attaches unique attributes to polymeric gels, such as 1) the extremely low stiffness, comparable to that of biological tissues, and 2) the coupling between deformation and solvent migration. However, swelling is also often accompanied with the reduction of both toughness and strength (Tsunoda 2000; Tanaka, 2000, Miquelard-Garnier, 2009), which could occur in gels obtained from either synthesis method. The fragility and weakness of gels hinder potential applications such as tissue replacement, tissue scaffold or as stimulus responsive material for sensors and actuators. In addition to promoting structural applications of gels, understand the fracture process of gels may also improve the handling and mouthfeel of many gel ingredients in foods (Lillfor, 2001; Foegeding, 2007) - an area less known to mechanical engineers.

PhD Studentship: Numerical modelling of fault formation

IMPERIAL COLLEGE, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 15 NOVEMBER 2012

***UK/EU Student Funding*** - ***Any International Student will require additional tuition payment***

 Background: Connectivity of faults in carbonates is believed to have a significant effect on the flow behaviour of oil and gas reservoirs. Capturing the development of these faults brings challenges to current geo-mechanics simulators, most notably in modelling the impact of poroelastic and thermoelastic deformation on the stress fields that create fractures and organise them into preferential structures.

PhD Studentship: Rock Fracture and Fragmentation: Optimization

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 31 OCTOBER 2012

Dear everyone,

Recently I am running a 3D FE model in ADINA to
analyse the elastic-plastic fracture behaviour.

A three-point bending specimen was modeled and the specimen was
supported by a contact roller.

Here is the problem:

In a rather small loading (load line displacement was about 0.1mm),
the program indicated that “the mesh is
too distorted” and stopped running. It also showed “No convergence” and stopped if the small strain formulation was
used.

This is an accepted manuscript in Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids

Title: Phase-field modeling of crack propagation in piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials with different electromechanical crack conditions

Authors: Amir Abdollahi and Irene Arias, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona

Abstract:

This is the preprint of an article that will appear in Smart Materials and Structures (SMS)

Title: Crack initiation patterns at electrode edges in multilayer ferroelectric actuators

Authors: Amir Abdollahi and Irene Arias, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona

Abstract:

A new postdoctoral position in the mechanics of glassy/amorphous materials is
available at the Weizmann Institute of Science. The project will focus on
strongly non-linear phenomena such as cavitation, shear-banding and fracture,
with applications to Bulk Metallic Glasses, and will involve advanced