Browsing by Author "Raina, Arun"

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Multi-level descriptions of failure phenomena with the strong discontinuity approach
(2014) Raina, Arun; Miehe, Christian (Prof. Dr.-Ing.)
The ever increasing demand of advanced engineered products also pushes the strengths of the materials used to their theoretical limits. It becomes crucially important to understand the behavior of such materials during failure for an efficient and safe design of the product. This thesis aims at the physical-based numerical modeling of complex failure phenomena in engineering materials, categorized into hard matter and soft matter. In Part I of this thesis, a modification of the well established strong discontinuity approach to model failure phenomena in hard matter by extending it to multiple levels is proposed. This is achieved by the resolution of the overall problem into a main boundary value problem and identified sub-domains based on the concepts of domain decomposition. Those sub- domains are subsequently adaptively discretized during run-time and comprise the so- called sub-boundary value problem to be solved simultaneously with the main boundary value problem. To model failure, only the sub-elements of those sub-boundary value problems are treated by the strong discontinuity approach which, depending on their state of stress, may develop cracks and shear bands. A single finite element of the main boundary value problem can therefore simulate the propagation of multiple propagating strong discontinuities specially arising for simulations of crack branching. The solutions of the different sub-boundary value problems are transferred to the main boundary value problem based on concepts of domain decomposition. The applied boundary conditions are also modified to account for the possible multiple jumps in the displacement fields. It is shown through the simulation of solids undergoing dynamic fracture that the modification allows to predict the onset of crack branching without the need for any artificial crack branching criterion. A close agreement with experiments of the simulation results in terms of micro- and macro branching in addition to studying certain key parameters like critical velocity, dynamic stress intensity factor, and the strain energy release rate at branching is found. In Part II of this thesis, failure phenomena in soft matter is modeled for which an advanced homogenization approach to model the highly anisotropic and non-linear stiffening response at finite strains is developed first. The constituent one-dimensional elements are modeled as linear elastic, by experimental justification, which are modified in the lower strain regime to account for the inherent fiber undulations and the associated fiber unfolding phenomena. Reorientation of these fibers is identified as one primary mechanism for the overall macroscopic stiffening which is achieved by a new bijective mapping asymptotically aligning these fibers with the maximum loading direction in the referential orientation space. A rate-independent evolution law for this map is sought by a physically motivated assumption to maintain the overall elastic framework of the proposed formulation. A closed form solution to the new evolution law is also presented which allows faster computation of updating orientations without resorting to numerical integration or storing history variables. The unit vectors upon reorientation in the referential orientation space are then mapped to the spatial orientation space by the macro deformation gradient to compute the macroscopic Kirchhoff stress and the associated spatial elasticity modulus. A direct comparison of the numerical results with the experimental results from the literature is made which demonstrates the predictive capabilities of the proposed formulation. Finally, the finite deformation extended strong discontinuity approach is utilized to simulate boundary value problems of failure in nonwoven felts. The simulation results of failure show a satisfactory agreement with the experimental data from literature.