We investigate propagating fronts in disordered media that belong to the universality class of wetting contact lines and planar tensile crack fronts. We derive from first principles their nonlinear equations of motion, using the generalized Griffith criterion for crack fronts and three standard mobility laws for contact lines. Then we study their roughness using the self-consistent expansion. W...

In this paper, the sorption isotherm and the hygral deformation of a tensile strain-hardening fiber reinforced engineered cementitious composite (ECC) is described using a physical model. The influence of using a low alkali content Portland cement on the physical mechanisms of drying shrinkage is discussed. From a durability point of view the crack width of a material as a result of restrained ...

The problem of dynamic symmetric branching of a tensile crack propagating in a brittle material is studied within Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics theory. The Griffith energy criterion and the principle of local symmetry provide necessary conditions for the onset of dynamic branching instability and for the subsequent paths of the branches. The theory predicts a critical velocity for branching...

A major contribution to the study of general anisotropic elasticity was made by Eshelby et al. (1953), who showed that, by making an appropriate linear transformation of the coordinate axes, the governing equations of the plane problem could be reduced to Laplacian form, thus permitting solutions to be written down in terms of analytic functions of the complex variable. This method was elaborat...

The mechanisms which occur during damage initiation, evolution and crack growth in AlSi7Mg0.3 cast alloys are studied by in-situ tensile testing in a scanning electron microscope. It is shown that microcracks in these alloys are predominantly formed in the Si particles. Shear bands are seen to precede the breaking of the Si particles and the dislocation pile-up mechanism can thus be con®rmed as...

In the current research work, the problem of fracture mechanics in a plate with a central hole under tensile loading is studied. The stress intensity factors are calculated for a finite plate containing two symmetrical hole-edge cracks. The problem is solved by two different methods, namely the finite element method and the FRANC software analysis. At first the finite element method is used and...

A low concentrated polystyrene (PS) additive to epoxy is used, since it is able to reduce the curing reaction rate but not at the cost of increasing viscosity and decreasing glass transition temperature of the curing epoxy. The modified epoxy is cocured with a compatible thermoplastic interleaf during the vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) to toughen the interlaminar of the composit...

Bulk-metallic glasses (BMGs) are now candidate materials for structural applications due to their exceptional strength and toughness. However, their fatigue resistance can be poor and inconsistent, severely limiting their potential as reliable structural materials. As fatigue limits are invariably governed by the local arrest of microscopically small cracks at microstructural features, the lack...

Attentive monitoring and regular repair of concrete cracks are necessary to avoid further durability problems. As an alternative to current maintenance methods, intrinsic repair systems which enable self-healing of cracks have been investigated. Exploiting microbial induced CaCO3 precipitation (MICP) using (protected) axenic cultures is one of the proposed methods. Yet, only a few of the sugges...

When a tensile strain is applied to a film supported on a compliant substrate, a pattern of parallel cracks can channel through both the film and substrate. A linear-elastic fracture-mechanics model for the phenomenon is presented to extend earlier analyses in which cracking was limited to the film. It is shown how failure of the substrate reduces the critical strain required to initiate fractu...