Selected, peer reviewed papers from the 11th International Conference on Fracture and Damage Mechanics (FDM 2012), September 18-21, 2012, Xian, China

The First African InterQuadrennial ICF Conference “AIQ-ICF2008” on Damage and Fracture Mechanics – Failure Analysis of Engineering Materials and Structures”, Algiers, Algeria, June 1–5, 2008 is the first in the series of InterQuadrennial Conferences on Fracture to be held in the continent of Africa. During the conference, African researchers have shown that they merit a strong reputation in international circles and continue to make substantial contributions to the field of fracture mechanics. As in most countries, the research effort in Africa is und- taken at the industrial, academic, private sector and governmental levels, and covers the whole spectrum of fracture and fatigue. The AIQ-ICF2008 has brought together researchers and engineers to review and discuss advances in the development of methods and approaches on Damage and Fracture Mechanics. By bringing together the leading international experts in the field, AIQ-ICF promotes technology transfer and provides a forum for industry and researchers of the host nation to present their accomplishments and to develop new ideas at the highest level. International Conferences have an important role to play in the technology transfer process, especially in terms of the relationships to be established between the participants and the informal exchange of ideas that this ICF offers.

This textbook offers readers an introduction to fracture mechanics, equipping them to grasp the basic ideas of the presented approaches to modeling in applied mechanics In the first part, the book reviews and expands on the classical theory of elastic and elasto-plastic material behavior. A solid understanding of these two topics is the essential prerequisite to advancing to damage and fracture mechanics. Thus, the second part of this course provides an introduction to the treatment of damage and fractures in the context of applied mechanics Wherever possible, the one-dimensional case is first introduced and then generalized in a following step. This departs somewhat from the more classical approach, where first the most general case is derived and then simplified to special cases. In general, the required mathematics background is kept to a minimum Tutorials are included at the end of each chapter, presenting the major steps for the solution and offering valuable tips and tricks. The supplementary problems featured in the book

Recent developments in engineering and technology have brought about serious and enlarged demands for reliability, safety and economy in wide range of fields such as aeronautics, nuclear engineering, civil and structural engineering, automotive and production industry. This, in turn, has caused more interest in continuum damage mechanics and its engineering applications. This book aims to give a concise overview of the current state of damage mechanics, and then to show the fascinating possibility of this promising branch of mechanics, and to provide researchers, engineers and graduate students with an intelligible and self-contained textbook. The book consists of two parts and an appendix. Part I is concerned with the foundation of continuum damage mechanics. Basic concepts of material damage and the mechanical representation of damage state of various kinds are described in Chapters 1 and 2. In Chapters 3-5, irreversible thermodynamics, thermodynamic constitutive theory and its application to the modeling of the constitutive and the evolution equations of damaged materials are descried as a systematic basis for the subsequent development throughout the book. Part II describes the application of the fundamental theories developed in Part I to typical damage and fracture problems encountered in various fields of the current engineering. Important engineering aspects of elastic-plastic or ductile damage, their damage mechanics modeling and their further refinement are first discussed in Chapter 6. Chapters 7 and 8 are concerned with the modeling of fatigue, creep, creep-fatigue and their engineering application. Damage mechanics modeling of complicated crack closure behavior in elastic-brittle and composite materials are discussed in Chapters 9 and 10. In Chapter 11, applicability of the local approach to fracture by means of damage mechanics and finite element method, and the ensuing mathematical and numerical problems are briefly discussed. A proper understanding of the subject matter requires knowledge of tensor algebra and tensor calculus. At the end of this book, therefore, the foundations of tensor analysis are presented in the Appendix, especially for readers with insufficient mathematical background, but with keen interest in this exciting field of mechanics.

This book presents recent advances in the field of computational coupling and contact mechanics with particular emphasis on numerical formulations and methodologies necessary to solve advanced engineering applications.Featuring contributions from leading experts and active researchers in these fields who provide a detailed overview of different modern numerical schemes that can be considered by main numerical methodologies to simulate interaction problems in continuum mechanics.A number of topics are addressed, including formulations based on the finite element method (FEM) and their variants (e.g. isogeometric analysis or standard and generalized high-order FEM: hp-FEM and GFEM, respectively), the boundary element method (BEM), the material point method (MPM) or the recently proposed finite block method (FBM), among many more.Written with PhD students in mind, Advances in Computational Coupling and Contact Mechanics also includes the most recent numerical techniques which could be served as reference material for researchers and practicing engineers. All chapters are self-contained and can be read independently, with numerical formulations accompanied by practical engineering applications.Related Link(s)

Selected, peer reviewed papers from the 2014 International Conference on Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (ICASET 2014), July 28-29, 2014, Qingdao, China

Portland cement concrete is a relatively brittle material. As a result, mechanical behavior of concrete, conventionally reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete, and fiber reinforced concrete is critically influenced by crack propagation. It is, thus, not surprising that attempts are being made to apply the concepts of fracture mechanics to quantify the resistance to cracking in cementious composites. The field of fracture mechanics originated in the 1920's with A. A. Griffith's work on fracture of brittle materials such as glass. Its most significant applications, however, have been for controlling brittle fracture and fatigue failure of metallic structures such as pressure vessels, airplanes, ships and pipe lines. Considerable development has occurred in the last twenty years in modifying Griffith's ideas or in proposing new concepts to account for the ductility typical of metals. As a result of these efforts, standard testing techniques have been available to obtain fracture parameters for metals, and design based on these parameters are included in relevant specifications. Many attempts have been made, in the last two decades or so, to apply the fracture mechanics concepts to cement, mortar, con crete and reinforced concrete. So far, these attempts have not led to a unique set of material parameters which can quantify the resistance of these cementitious composites to fracture. No standard testing methods and a generally accepted theoretical analysis are established for concrete as they are for metals.