Any fracture process ultimately involves the rupture of atomic bonds. Processes at the atomic scale therefore critically influence the toughness and overall fracture behavior of materials. Atomistic simulationmethods including large-scalemolecular dynamics simulations with classical potentials, density functional theory calculations and advanced concurrent multiscale methods have led to new ins...

Some cases of infant skull fracture fall under the category of forensic study where it is not obvious whether the head trauma happened due to an accident or abuse. To be able to determine the cause of the head trauma with sufficient accuracy, biomechanical analysis using finite element modeling of the infant cranium has been established. By simulating the trauma, one may be able to obtain the f...

This paper presents a Cohesive Zone Model (CZM) approach for investigating dynamic crack propagation in homogeneous and Functionally Graded Materials (FGMs). The failure criterion is incorporated in the CZM using both a finite cohesive strength and work to fracture in the material description. A novel CZM for FGMs is explored and incorporated into a finite element framework. The material gradat...

Classical dynamic fracture theories predict the surface wave speed to be the limiting speed for propagation of in-plane cracks in homogeneous, linear elastic materials subjected to remote loading. This report presents experimental evidence to the contrary. Intersonic shear-dominated crack growth featuring shear shock waves was observed along weak planes in a brittle polyester resin under far-fi...

This paper presents a Cohesive Zone Model (CZM) approach for investigating dynamic crack propagation in homogeneous and Functionally Graded Materials (FGMs). The failure criterion is incorporated in the CZM using both a finite cohesive strength and work to fracture in the material description. A novel CZM for FGMs is explored and incorporated into a finite element framework. The material gradat...

Technically relevant fluid-structure interaction simulation of detonation-induced dynamic response of thin-walled solid structures requires an efficient detonation solver that can cope with large deformations as well as arbitrary topology changes of the computational domain. We present a parallel adaptive method that uses a scalar level set function to represent embedded evolving solid boundari...

A multiscale meshfree particle method is developed, which includes recent advances in SPH and other meshfree research efforts. Key features will include linear consistency, stability, and both local and global conservation properties. In addition, through the incorporation of Reproducing Kernal Particle Method(RKPM), standard moving least squares (MLS) enhancement and wavelet techniques, the me...