Transient analysis of the DSIFs and dynamic T-stress for particulate composite materials—Numerical vs. experimental results

The fracture behavior of particulate composite materials when subjected to dynamic loading has been a great concern for many industrial applications as these materials are particularly susceptible to impact loading conditions. As a result, many numerical and experimental techniques have been developed to deal with this class of problems. In this work, the fracture behavior of particulate composites under impact loading conditions is numerically studied via the two most important fracture parameters: dynamic stress intensity factors (DSIFs) and dynamic T-stress (DTS), and the results are compared with the experimental data obtained in Refs. [1,2]. Here, micromechanics models (self-consistent, Mori–Tanaka, y) or experimental techniques need to be employed first to determine the effective material properties of particulate composites. Then, the symmetric-Galerkin boundary element method for elastodynamics in the Fourier-space frequency domain is used in conjunction with displacement correlation technique to evaluate the DSIFs and stress correlation technique to determine the DTS. To obtain transient responses of the fracture parameters, fast Fourier transform (FFT) and inverse FFT are subsequently used to convert the DSIFs and DTS from the frequency domain to the time domain. Test examples involving free–free beams made of particulate composites are considered in this study. The numerical results are found to agree very well with the experimental ones. & 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.