For many fracture problems of practical engineering importance, the three-dimensional effects are significant and a three-dimensional analysis for the problems is thus required. In this paper, an endochronic theory coupled with anisotropic damage is first established, which is actually an elasto-plastic damage theory coupled with isotropic-nonlinear kinematic hardening. The ductile damage evolu...

The welding heat input has a great influence on the weldments properties. This paper describes the influence of welding heat input on the weld metal toughness of high-carbon steel surface welded joint. The steel is surfaced with self-shielded wire, with three different heat inputs (6.5; 10.5 and 16 kJ/cm). Total impact energy, as well as crack initiation and crack propagation energies, are esti...

Modelling quasi-static crack growth with interface elements is a widely accepted technique [1-2]. Interface elements are inserted into the finite element mesh along possible crack paths. The interface elements are characterised by a traction-displacement curve. When a specific maximum stress is reached, the interface element undergoes a softening process until the critical fracture energy has b...

An understanding of the evolution of toughness is essential for the mechanistic interpretation of the fracture of cortical bone. In the present study, in vitro fracture experiments were conducted on human cortical bone in order to identify and quantitatively assess the salient toughening mechanisms. The fracture toughness was found to rise linearly with crack extension (i.e., rising resistance-...

The purpose of this research is to determine the resistance to the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of three unidirectional (pultruded) E-glass/polymer composites based on modified polyester, epoxy and vinyl ester resins. The composites have been subjected to a nitric acid solution of pH 1.2 in a newly designed four-point bend fixture. The stress corrosion process was initiated on the as supplie...

PURPOSE The aim of the present study was to assess the influence of pre-treatments of zirconia by sandblasting and/or heat treatment on the flexural strength of zirconia and debonding/crack-initiation strength of porcelain-veneered zirconia ceramic. MATERIALS AND METHODS Zirconia ceramic specimens were divided into four groups according to treatment (grinding as controls, sandblasting, heat t...

Crack initiation in Ti-6242 has been observed to occur in a grain with a hard orientation for basal slip neighbouring a grain with a soft orientation. Because there is significant variability in microstructural features and crack initiation life, it is useful to explore the effects of the variability of the microstructural components through a probabilistic sensitivity analysis. In this paper, ...

This paper proposes a reliable and cost-effective two-phase methodology to predict crack propagation life in generic two-dimensional (2D) structural components. First, the usually curved fatigue crack path and its stress-intensity factors are calculated at small crack increments in a specialized finite-element software, using automatic remeshing algorithms, special crack tip elements and approp...

The aim of the study was to find the optimum combination of materials and thicknesses to provide a tough, damage resistant multi-layer system with numerical methods to restore the damaged teeth. Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) was used to assess the critical loads for the onset of damage modes such as radial cracks and plastic deformation in dental prostheses, which consist of a brittle o...

Bone fracture is a health concern for those with aged bone and brittle bone diseases. Mouse bone is widely used as a model of human bone, especially to investigate preclinical treatment strategies. However, little is known about the mechanisms of mouse bone fracture and its similarities and differences from fracture in human bone. In this work we present a methodology to investigate the fractur...