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Abstract  Dynamic failure events such as armor penetration and explosive fragmentation are too complex to be treated by classical single-crack continuum fracture mechanics. In such cases deformation and fracture result from multiple cracks, voids, and shear bands acting simultaneously and influencing one another’s evolution. An alternative “meso” fracture mechanics is needed that treats microfailure activity while permitting fast and inexpensive predictive computations. This paper discusses the approach and experiments that elucidate and quantify failure physics on the micron level. “Rosetta Stone” experiments that isolate a damage mode, produce statistical distributions of damage features, and “freeze in” damage at various stages of development are described and illustrated. The observations and data lead to equations describing nucleation and growth of cracks, voids, and shear bands. The resulting mesomechanical material failure models link the microworld with the macroworld and can be used in continuum hydrocodes for fast, efficient simulations of dynamic fracture scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports on the results from analysis of some nonclassical fracture problems that allow for stresses along cracks. The results have been obtained by the author and his collaborators at the Institute of Mechanics (Kiev) since 1980 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research is concerned with the fracture mechanics of a laminated composite medium, which contains a central layer sandwiched by two outer layers. There is a periodic array of cracks in the central layer along the central axis of the medium. Fourier transform is used to reduce the problem to the solution of a system of dual integral equations, which are solved by the singular integral equation technique. Rigorous fracture mechanics analysis, which exactly satisfies all boundary conditions of the problem, is conducted. Numerical solutions for the crack tip field and the stress in the medium are obtained for various values such as crack length, crack spacing and layer thickness. Results are also given for the reduction of the equivalent Young’s modulus of the laminate due to multiple cracking. The cases of axial extension and residual temperature change of the composite medium are accounted for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We will solve a fracture-mechanics problem for an elastic material with cracks subject to a polyharmonic load created by longitudinal waves with different wavelengths propagating through the material. The frictionless contact between the edges of a finite-length plane crack under the action of two normal harmonic tension/compression waves with different frequencies is studied. The forces of contact interaction and displacement discontinuity are analyzed. The effect of the wave frequency on the stress intensity factor is examined for different normalized wave numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tear resistance of polyethylene terephthalate film is characterized by the essential work of fracture method in mode I as a function of test speed and temperature. Attempts to extrapolate tearing resistance found by the method of essential work to commercial slitting processes are discussed. Limitations of the essential work of fracture method with regards to specimen size are evaluated. Based on the findings modifications to the test protocol are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A two-level fracture model of composites with cracks under compression is proposed. Fiber-reinforced laminated panels with a hole are considered. The panels are compressed along the fibers so that two cracks propagate from the hole boundary at a right angle to the loading direction. The fracture mechanism is analyzed at two levels. The first level is the compression-induced stress concentration at the tip of a finite-thickness crack filled with a fractured material. At this level, the theory of elasticity of linear orthotropic body is used. The second level is compression fracture at the crack tip. The analysis performed at this level involves the three-dimensional linearized theory of stability of solids, considering microcracks in the interface between the fractured and intact materials, and the exact solution describing the compression-induced instability of the cracked interface. The second level is where results obtained by the author are used. Thus, the approach proposed employs the theory of elasticity of linear orthotropic body and the three-dimensional linearized theory of stability of solids to analyze a specific mechanism of fracture [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structural theory of short-term damage is generalized to the case where the undamaged components of anN-component laminar composite deform nonlinearly. The basis for this generalization is the stochastic elasticity equations for anN-component laminar composite with porous components whose skeleton deforms nonlinearly. Microvolumes of the composite components meet the Huber-Mises failure criterion. Damaged microvolume balance equations are derived for the physically nonlinear materials of the composite components. Together with the equations relating macrostresses and macrostrains of the laminar composite with porous nonlinear components, they constitute a closed-form system. This system describes the coupled processes of physically nonlinear deformation and microdamage. For a two-component laminar composite, algorithms for calculating the microdamage-macrostrain relationship and plotting deformation curves are proposed. Uniaxial tension curves are plotted for the case where microdamages occur in the linearly hardening component and do not in the linearly elastic component [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The non–Euclidean continuum model for the description of the stress–field distribution around underground workings with a round cross section is considered. From the physical viewpoint, the non–Euclideanness parameter determines the incompatibility of elastic deformations in a rock. It is shown that disintegration zones can be identified with the parts of the rock in which this parameter takes on the maximum values and the force discontinuity criterion for the medium holds. An analysis allows one to relate the macroscopic characteristics of zonal rock fracture around a working to the non–Euclideanness parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]