CRACK PROPAGATION BEHAVIOR OF LATERALLY CONSTRAINED POLYMERS USED AS DIELECTRIC ELASTOMERS

Author(s):  
Dilshad Ahmad ◽  
Karali Patra ◽  
Mokarram Hossain ◽  
Amit Kumar

ABSTRACT Dielectric elastomer-based transducers are rapidly gaining importance with the syntheses of new polymers that can potentially be used as dielectric materials. However, these materials are always prone to fracture in the presence of cracks and flaws. Failures originate from flaws (or notches), and a complete fracture may take place due to the propagation of cracks. The present work investigates the crack propagation behavior of two popular polymers, VHB 4910 and Ecoflex, that are widely used as dielectric elastomers. In this case, tensile loadings in laterally constrained boundary conditions are considered. The average crack propagation speed for Ecoflex is higher than that for VHB, implying that Ecoflex will fail earlier than that of VHB under similar conditions. Moreover, with increasing notch lengths at a fixed strain rate, the average crack propagation speed decreases appreciably but becomes constant for comparatively larger notches. The results also conclude that the average crack propagation speed and normalized crack tip diameter remain higher for VHB than for Ecoflex for larger normalized notch lengths. It is observed that the average crack propagation speed increases with strain rates, whereas the normalized crack tip diameter is independent of strain rates. Experimental results obtained here will provide a useful comparative insight to understand the failure behavior of two polymers widely used as dielectric elastomers.

Author(s):  
Junqiang Wang ◽  
Haitao Wang ◽  
Nan Lin ◽  
Honglian Ma ◽  
Jinlong Wang

The ductile crack propagation behavior of pressure equipment has always been the focus of structural integrity assessment. It is very important to find an effective three-dimensional (3D) damage model, which overcomes the geometric discontinuity and crack tip singularity caused by cracking. The cohesive force model (CZM), which is combined with the extended finite element method (XFEM), can solve element self-reconfiguration near the crack tip and track the crack direction. Based on the theory of void nucleation, growth and coalescence, the Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GTN) damage model is used to study the fracture behavior of metallic materials, and agrees well with the experimental results. Two 3D crack propagation models are used to compare crack propagation behavior of pipe steel from the crack tip shape, fracture critical value of CTOA and CTOD, constraint effect, calculation accuracy, efficiency and mesh dependence etc. The results show that the GTN model has excellent applicability in the analysis of crack tip CTOD/CTOA, constraint effect, tunneling crack and so on, and its accuracy is high. However, the mesh of crack growth region needs to be extremely refined, and the element size is required to be 0.1–0.3mm and the calculation amount is large. The CZM model combined with XFEM has the advantages of high computational efficiency and free crack growth path, and the advantages are obvious in simulating the shear crack, combination crack and fatigue crack propagation. But, the crack tip shape and thickness effect of ductile tearing specimen can not be simulated, and the CTOA value of local crack tip is not accurate.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mufei Wang ◽  
Zhiqiang Li

Abstract Crack initiation and propagation is a long-standing difficulty in solid mechanics, especially for elastic-brittle material. To explore the damage and crack propagation behavior of architectural glass under different type of loads, the element deletion (ED), discontinuous Galerkin peridynamics (DG-PD) and meshless peridynamics (M-PD) methods are studied. Taking the architecture glass as an example, the crack propagation behavior under the bullet impact and explosion load are studied. The JH-2 material model is used in the ED method, and the maximum principal stress and maximum principal strain failure criteria are applied at the same time. In the DG-PD method, it conducts a node separation operation and imposes the criterion of the critical energy release rate. The M-PD method adopts a self-programmed particle discretization method and imposes a criterion of critical elongation. Three methods can simulate the crack growth behavior of glass material, but the PD method has great advantages in detail, such as crack bifurcation and penetration. For low-velocity bullets, the failure behavior of glass all shows cross-shaped cracks in different methods. The splashing of elements or particles appears in the two PD methods, but the particle splashing of the M-PD method is more obvious, and the DG-PD method captures the crack bifurcation effect better. For the failure behavior of glass under explosive loading, the PD method is obviously better than the ED method in terms of modal appearance. However, in the mechanical behavior of specific elements, the two methods have a high degree of agreement.


Crystals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1047
Author(s):  
Wenxiang Jiang ◽  
Xiaoyi Ren ◽  
Jinghao Zhao ◽  
Jianli Zhou ◽  
Jinyao Ma ◽  
...  

An in situ scanning electron microscope (SEM) tensile test for Ni-based single-crystal superalloy was carried out at 1000 °C. The stress displacement was obtained, and the yield strength and tensile strength of the superalloy were 699 MPa and 826 MPa, respectively. The crack propagation process, consisting of Model I crack and crystallographic shearing crack, was determined. More interestingly, the crack propagation path and rate affected by eutectics was directly observed and counted. Results show that the coalescence of the primary crack and second microcrack at the interface of a γ/γ′ matrix and eutectics would make the crack propagation rate increase from 0.3 μm/s to 0.4 μm/s. On the other hand, crack deflection decreased the rate to 0.05 μm/s. Moreover, movement of dislocations in front of the crack was also analyzed to explain the different crack propagation behavior in the superalloy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 1882-1888 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen-juan CHENG ◽  
Yong LIU ◽  
Da-peng ZHAO ◽  
Bin LIU ◽  
Yan-ni TAN ◽  
...  

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