Cohesive zone length of metagabbro at supershear rupture velocity

This study investigates some technical issues related to the use of cohesive zone models (CZMs) in modeling the fracture of materials with negligible plasticity outside the fracture process zone. These issues include: (1) why cohesive laws of different shapes can produce similar fracture predictions, (2) under what conditions CZM predictions have a high degree of agreement with linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) analysis results, (3) when the shape of cohesive laws becomes important in the fracture predictions, and (4) why the opening profile along the cohesive zone length (CZL) needs to be accurately predicted. Two cohesive models were used in this study to address these technical issues. They are the linear softening cohesive model and the Dugdale perfectly plastic cohesive model. Each cohesive model uses five cohesive laws of different maximum tractions. All cohesive laws have the same cohesive work rate (CWR) defined by the area under the traction–separation curve. The effects of the maximum traction on the cohesive zone length and the critical remote applied stress are investigated for both models. The following conclusions from this study may provide some guidelines for the prediction of fracture using CZM. For a CZM to predict a fracture load similar to that obtained by an LEFM analysis, the cohesive zone length needs to be much smaller than the crack length, which reflects the small-scale yielding condition requirement for LEFM analysis to be valid. For large-scale cohesive zone cases, the predicted critical remote applied stresses depend on the shape of the cohesive models used and can significantly deviate from LEFM results. Furthermore, this study also reveals the importance of accurately predicting the cohesive zone profile for determining the critical remote applied load.

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Augmented Cohesive Elements for Efficient Delamination Analyses of Composite Laminates

Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology ◽

10.1115/1.4004694 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 133 (4) ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

H. Qiao ◽

W. Q. Chen ◽

Q. D. Yang ◽

J. Lua

Keyword(s):

Cohesive Zone ◽

Composite Structures ◽

Nonlinear Deformation ◽

Practical Importance ◽

Cohesive Elements ◽

Numerical Accuracy ◽

Cohesive Stress ◽

Zone Length ◽

Gaussian Integration ◽

Stress Integration

In this paper, a new type of cohesive element that employs multiple subdomain integration (MSDI) for improved cohesive stress integration accuracy of bonded plate/shell elements has been formulated. Within each subdomain, stress integration is compatible with existing schemes such as Gaussian integration (GI), Newton–Cotes integration, or the mixed Gaussian and subdomain integration (mixed GI&SDI). The numerical accuracy, efficiency, and robustness of this element when employing three integration methods for MSD cohesive stress integration have been evaluated and compared through a benchmark mode-I fracture problem of bonded double-cantilever plates. The MSDI offers at least 50% improvement of numerical accuracy as compared to the best integration method in literature and has the best numerical robustness. This significant improvement pushes the structural mesh size restriction from limiting size of 1/3–1/5 cohesive zone length to 1.5–2 times the cohesive zone length. The formulation is very easy to be implemented into any finite element programs including commercial packages. Furthermore, this formulation enables the use of dual-mesh for delamination analyses of bonded structural shells/plates, which is of practical importance because it greatly reduces the burden of mesh generation for complicated composite structures. It has also been demonstrated that using high-order shell/plate elements can improve the numerical accuracy in general because the nonlinear deformation profile permitted by this type of elements can better describe the nonlinear deformation in the crack-tip element (partially bonded elements).

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