Particle Discontinuous Deformation Analysis of Static and Dynamic Crack Propagation in Brittle Material

Crack propagation in brittle material is not only crucial for structural safety evaluation,but also has a wideranging impact on material design,damage assessment,resource extraction,and scientific research.A thorough investigation into the behavior of crack propagation contributes to a better understanding and control of the properties of brittle materials,thereby enhancing the reliability and safety of both materials and structures.As an implicit discrete elementmethod,the Discontinuous Deformation Analysis(DDA)has gained significant attention for its developments and applications in recent years.Among these developments,the particle DDA equipped with the bonded particle model is a powerful tool for predicting the whole process of material from continuity to failure.The primary objective of this research is to develop and utilize the particle DDAtomodel and understand the complex behavior of cracks in brittle materials under both static and dynamic loadings.The particle DDA is applied to several classical crack propagation problems,including the crack branching,compact tensile test,Kalthoff impact experiment,and tensile test of a rectangular plate with a hole.The evolutions of cracks under various stress or geometrical conditions are carefully investigated.The simulated results are compared with the experiments and other numerical results.It is found that the crack propagation patterns,including crack branching and the formation of secondary cracks,can be well reproduced.The results show that the particle DDA is a qualified method for crack propagation problems,providing valuable insights into the fracture mechanism of brittle materials.

Application of modified discontinuous deformation analysis to dynamic modelling of the Baige landslide in the Jinsha River

Accurate dynamic modeling of landslides could help understand the movement mechanisms and guide disaster mitigation and prevention.Discontinuous deformation analysis(DDA)is an effective approach for investigating landslides.However,DDA fails to accurately capture the degradation in shear strength of rock joints commonly observed in high-speed landslides.In this study,DDA is modified by incorporating simplified joint shear strength degradation.Based on the modified DDA,the kinematics of the Baige landslide that occurred along the Jinsha River in China on 10 October 2018 are reproduced.The violent starting velocity of the landslide is considered explicitly.Three cases with different violent starting velocities are investigated to show their effect on the landslide movement process.Subsequently,the landslide movement process and the final accumulation characteristics are analyzed from multiple perspectives.The results show that the violent starting velocity affects the landslide motion characteristics,which is found to be about 4 m/s in the Baige landslide.The movement process of the Baige landslide involves four stages:initiation,high-speed sliding,impact-climbing,low-speed motion and accumulation.The accumulation states of sliding masses in different zones are different,which essentially corresponds to reality.The research results suggest that the modified DDA is applicable to similar high-level rock landslides.

Finite Deformation, Finite Strain Nonlinear Dynamics and Dynamic Bifurcation in TVE Solids with Rheology

This paper presents a mathematical model consisting of conservation and balance laws (CBL) of classical continuum mechanics (CCM) and ordered rate constitutive theories in Lagrangian description derived using entropy inequality and the representation theorem for thermoviscoelastic solids (TVES) with rheology. The CBL and the constitutive theories take into account finite deformation and finite strain deformation physics and are based on contravariant deviatoric second Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor and its work conjugate covariant Green’s strain tensor and their material derivatives of up to order m and n respectively. All published works on nonlinear dynamics of TVES with rheology are mostly based on phenomenological mathematical models. In rare instances, some aspects of CBL are used but are incorrectly altered to obtain mass, stiffness and damping matrices using space-time decoupled approaches. In the work presented in this paper, we show that this is not possible using CBL of CCM for TVES with rheology. Thus, the mathematical models used currently in the published works are not the correct description of the physics of nonlinear dynamics of TVES with rheology. The mathematical model used in the present work is strictly based on the CBL of CCM and is thermodynamically and mathematically consistent and the space-time coupled finite element methodology used in this work is unconditionally stable and provides solutions with desired accuracy and is ideally suited for nonlinear dynamics of TVES with memory. The work in this paper is the first presentation of a mathematical model strictly based on CBL of CCM and the solution of the mathematical model is obtained using unconditionally stable space-time coupled computational methodology that provides control over the errors in the evolution. Both space-time coupled and space-time decoupled finite element formulations are considered for obtaining solutions of the IVPs described by the mathematical model and are presented in the paper. Factors or the physics influencing dynamic response and dynamic bifurcation for TVES with rheology are identified and are also demonstrated through model problem studies. A simple model problem consisting of a rod (1D) of TVES material with memory fixed at one end and subjected to harmonic excitation at the other end is considered to study nonlinear dynamics of TVES with rheology, frequency response as well as dynamic bifurcation phenomenon.

On the calibration and verification of Voronoi-based discontinuous deformation analysis for modeling rock fracture

Since its introduction,discontinuous deformation analysis(DDA)has been widely used in different areas of rock mechanics.By dividing large blocks into subblocks and introducing artificial joints,DDA can be applied to rock fracture simulation.However,parameter calibration,a fundamental issue in discontinuum methods,has not received enough attention in DDA.In this study,the parameter calibration of DDA for intact rock is carefully studied.To this end,a subblock DDA with Voronoi tessellation is presented first.Then,a modified contact constitutive law is introduced,in which the tensile and shear meso-strengths are modified to be independent of the bond lengths.This improvement can prevent the unjustified preferential failure of short edges.A method for imposing confining pressure is also introduced.Thereafter,sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the influence of the calculated parameters and meso-parameters on the mechanical properties of modeled rock.Based on the sensitivity analysis,a unified calibration procedure is suggested for both cases with and without confining pressure.Finally,the calibration procedure is applied to two examples,including a biaxial compression test.The results show that the proposed Voronoi-based DDA can simulate rock fracture with and without confining pressure very well after careful parameter calibration.

Finite Deformation, Finite Strain Nonlinear Dynamics and Dynamic Bifurcation in TVE Solids

This paper presents the mathematical model consisting of conservation and balance laws (CBL) of classical continuum mechanics (CCM) and the constitutive theories derived using entropy inequality and representation theorem for thermoviscoelastic solids (TVES) matter without memory. The CBL and the constitutive theories take into account finite deformation and finite strain deformation physics. This mathematical model is thermodynamically and mathematically consistent and is ideally suited to study nonlinear dynamics of TVES and dynamic bifurcation and is used in the work presented in this paper. The finite element formulations are constructed for obtaining the solution of the initial value problems (IVPs) described by the mathematical models. Both space-time coupled as well as space-time decoupled finite element methods are considered for obtaining solutions of the IVPs. Space-time coupled finite element formulations based on space-time residual functional (STRF) that yield space-time variationally consistent space-time integral forms are considered. This approach ensures unconditional stability of the computations during the entire evolution. In the space-time decoupled finite element method based on Galerkin method with weak form for spatial discretization, the solutions of nonlinear ODEs in time resulting from the decoupling of space and time are obtained using Newmark linear acceleration method. Newton’s linear method is used to obtain converged solution for the nonlinear system of algebraic equations at each time step in the Newmark method. The different aspects of the deformation physics leading to the factors that influence nonlinear dynamic response and dynamic bifurcation are established using the proposed mathematical model, the solution method and their validity is demonstrated through model problem studies presented in this paper. Energy methods and superposition techniques in any form including those used in obtaining solutions are neither advocated nor used in the present work as these are not supported by calculus of variations and mathematical classification of differential operators appearing in nonlinear dynamics. The primary focus of the paper is to address various aspects of the deformation physics in nonlinear dynamics and their influence on dynamic bifurcation phenomenon using mathematical models strictly based on CBL of CCM using reliable unconditionally stable space-time coupled solution methods, which ensure solution accuracy or errors in the calculated solution are always identified. Many model problem studies are presented to further substantiate the concepts presented and discussed in the paper. Investigations presented in this paper are also compared with published works when appropriate.

FORMULATIONS OF THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL DISCONTINUOUS DEFORMATION ANALYSIS METHOD

This paper extends the original 2D discontinuous deformation analysis(DDA)method proposed by Shi to 3D cases,and presents the formulations of the 3D DDA.The formulations maintain the characteristics of the original 2D DDA approach.Contacts between the blocks are detected by using Common-Plane (C-P) approach and the non-smooth contact,such as of vertex-to-vertex,vertex- to-edge and edge-to-edge types,can be handled easily based on the C-P method.The matrices of equilibrium equations have been given in detail for programming purposes.The C program codes for the 3D DDA are developed.The ability and accuracy of the formulations and the program are verified by the analytical solutions of several dynamic examples.The robustness and versatility of the algorithms presented in this paper are demonstrated with the aid of an example of scattering of densely packed cubes.Finally,implications and future extensions are discussed.

Validation and application of three-dimensional discontinuous deformation analysis with tetrahedron finite element meshed block

In the last decade, three dimensional discontin- uous deformation analyses （3D DDA） has attracted more and more attention of researchers and geotechnical engineers worldwide. The original DDA formulation utilizes a linear displacement function to describe the block movement and deformation, which would cause block expansion under rigid body rotation and thus limit its capability to model block de- formation. In this paper, 3D DDA is coupled with tetrahe- dron finite elements to tackle these two problems. Tetrahe- dron is the simplest in the 3D domain and makes it easy to implement automatic discretization, even for complex topol- ogy shape. Furthermore, element faces will remain planar and element edges will remain straight after deformation for tetrahedron finite elements and polyhedral contact detection schemes can be used directly. The matrices of equilibrium equations for this coupled method are given in detail and an effective contact searching algorithm is suggested. Valida- tion is conducted by comparing the results of the proposed coupled method with that of physical model tests using one of the most common failure modes, i.e., wedge failure. Most of the failure modes predicted by the coupled method agree with the physical model results except for 4 cases out of the total 65 cases. Finally, a complex rockslide example demon- strates the robustness and versatility of the coupled method.

Elastoplastic model for discontinuous shear deformation of deep rock mass

Deep rock mass possesses some unusual properties due to high earth stress,which further result in new problems that have not been well understood and explained up to date.In order to investigate the deformation mechanism,the complete deformation process of deep rock mass,with a great emphasis on local shear deformation stage,was analyzed in detail.The quasi continuous shear deformation of the deep rock mass is described by a combination of smooth functions:the averaged distribution of the original deformation field,and the local discontinuities along the slip lines.Hence,an elasto-plastic model is established for the shear deformation process,in which the rotational displacement is taken into account as well as the translational component.Numerical analysis method was developed for case study.Deformation process of a tunnel under high earth stress was investigated for verification.

Dynamic process analysis of the Niumiangou landslide triggered by the Wenchuan earthquake using the finite difference method and a modified discontinuous deformation analysis

The Niumiangou landslide was the largest landslide triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake,which was significantly affected by the amplification effect of seismic acceleration.The ringshear experiments indicated that the materials in the source area of the Niumiangou landslide were subjected to friction degradation under a big shear displacement,which may result in rapid movement of the landslide.In order to better understand the landslide movement and study the effect of the friction degradation on movement mechanisms,the dynamic process of Niumiangou landslide was simulated with a new numerical method,which combines the finite difference method(FDM)and the discontinuous deformation analysis(DDA).First,the FDM was used to study the initiation time,amplification effect and velocity of the landslide.Afterwards,these initiation velocities were applied to the blocks in the DDA model by corresponding coordination in the FDM model.A displacementdependent friction model of the sliding surface was incorporated into DDA code to further understand the kinetic behavior of the landslide.The results show that the displacement-dependent friction strongly decreases the friction coefficient of sliding surface under a big displacement,which can obviously promote the run-out and velocity of landslide.The model output well matches the topographic map formed by the landslide.This implies that the proposed model can be applied to the simulation of earthquake-induced landslides with amplification effect,and the friction degradation model is important to clarify the movement mechanism of high-speed and long-distance landslides.

Discontinuous Precipitation and Dissolution in Cu-4, 6 at% In Alloy under the Effect of Plastic Deformation and the Temperature

The study of the discontinuous precipitation reaction and the lamellar precipitate dissolution in the alloy Cu-In system provoked a considerable benefit and has been the subject of many theoretical and experimental investigations. The aim of this work is to make the evidence on the one hand the effect of the plastic deformation on the mechanism of the discontinuous precipitation reaction such as nucleation, growth and lamellar coarsening and in other hand the effect of temperature on the characteristics and front behavior movement of the opposite reaction (discontinuous dissolution). Different techniques of analysis have been used in this respect such as the optical microscopy, the differential thermal analysis and the microhardness Vickers. The obtained results confirm various works achieved in this field.

NUMERIC ANALYSIS ON INFLUENCED FACTORS OF DISCONTINUOUS SURFACE DEFORMATION DUE TO STEEPLY-INCLINED SEAM MINING

This paper deals with the shape and influenced factors of surface non-continuous deformation due to mining. With finite element method, analysis are made to derive the relations between discontinuous deformation and mining affection, weak plane’s position & thickness, and mechanical property of weak-plane medium. The mutual affection of multiple weak-planes is also discussed. The results of the paper lay a foundation for constructing the calculation method of surface discontinuous deformation.

Nonlinear elastic deformation of magnesium and cobalt by Preisach-Mayergoyz model

A classic hysteretic model, Preisach-Mayergoyz model （P-M model）, was used to calculate the nonlinear elastic deformation of magnesium （Mg） and cobalt （Co）. Mg and Co samples in cylinder shape were compressively tested by uniaxial test machine to obtain their stress—strain curves with hysteretic loops. The hysteretic loops do have two properties of P-M hysteretic systems： wiping out and congruency. It is proved that P-M model is applicable for the analysis of these two metals’ hysteresis. This model was applied on Mg at room temperature and Co at 300 ℃. By the P-M model, Co and Mg nonlinear elastic deformation can be calculated based on the stress history. The simulated stress—strain curves agree well with the experimental results. Therefore, the mechanical hysteresis of these two metals can be easily predicted by the classic P-M hysteretic model.

Experimental and numerical studies of nonlinear ultrasonic responses on plastic deformation in weld joints

The experimental measurements and numerical simulations are performed to study ultrasonic nonlinear responses from the plastic deformation in weld joints. The ultrasonic nonlinear signals are measured in the plastic deformed30Cr2Ni4 Mo V specimens, and the results show that the nonlinear parameter monotonically increases with the plastic strain, and that the variation of nonlinear parameter in the weld region is maximal compared with those in the heat-affected zone and base regions. Microscopic images relating to the microstructure evolution of the weld region are studied to reveal that the change of nonlinear parameter is mainly attributed to dislocation evolutions in the process of plastic deformation loading. Meanwhile, the finite element model is developed to investigate nonlinear behaviors of ultrasonic waves propagating in a plastic deformed material based on the nonlinear stress–strain constitutive relationship in a medium. Moreover, a pinned string model is adopted to simulate dislocation evolution during plastic damages. The simulation and experimental results show that they are in good consistency with each other, and reveal a rising acoustic nonlinearity due to the variations of dislocation length and density and the resulting stress concentration.

Experimental study and electromechanical model analysis of the nonlinear deformation behavior of IPMC actuators

This paper develops analytical electromechanical formulas to predict the mechanical deformation of ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) cantilever actuators under DC excitation voltages. In this research, IPMC samples with Pt and Ag electrodes were manufactured, and the large nonlinear deformation and the effect of curvature on surface electrode resistance of the IPMC samples were investigated experimentally and theoretically. A distributed electrical model was modified for calculating the distribution of voltage along the bending actuator. Then an irreversible thermodynamic model that could predict the curvature of a unit part of an IPMC actuator is combined with the electrical model so that an analytical electromechanical model is developed. The electromechanical model is then validated against the experimental results obtained from Pt- and Ag-IPMC actuators under various excitation voltages. The good agreement between the electromechanical model and the actuators shows that the analytical electromechanical model can accurately describe the large nonlinear quasi-static deflection behavior of IPMC actuators.

Isogeometric analysis of free-form Timoshenko curved beams including the nonlinear effects of large deformations

In the present paper, the isogeometric analysis（IGA） of free-form planar curved beams is formulated based on the nonlinear Timoshenko beam theory to investigate the large deformation of beams with variable curvature. Based on the isoparametric concept, the shape functions of the field variables（displacement and rotation） in a finite element analysis are considered to be the same as the non-uniform rational basis spline（NURBS） basis functions defining the geometry. The validity of the presented formulation is tested in five case studies covering a wide range of engineering curved structures including from straight and constant curvature to variable curvature beams. The nonlinear deformation results obtained by the presented method are compared to well-established benchmark examples and also compared to the results of linear and nonlinear finite element analyses. As the nonlinear load-deflection behavior of Timoshenko beams is the main topic of this article, the results strongly show the applicability of the IGA method to the large deformation analysis of free-form curved beams. Finally, it is interesting to notice that, until very recently, the large deformations analysis of free-form Timoshenko curved beams has not been considered in IGA by researchers.

NONLINEAR WAVES AND PERIODIC SOLUTION IN FINITE DEFORMATION ELASTIC ROD

A nonlinear wave equation of elastic rod taking account of finite deformation, transverse inertia and shearing strain is derived by means of the Hamilton principle in this paper. Nonlinear wave equation and truncated nonlinear wave equation are solved by the Jacobi elliptic sine function expansion and the third kind of Jacobi elliptic function expansion method. The exact periodic solutions of these nonlinear equations are obtained, including the shock wave solution and the solitary wave solution. The necessary condition of exact periodic solutions, shock solution and solitary solution existence is discussed.

Recrystallization of the cold-deformed discontinuous precipitation microstructure in Al-Zn (-Cu) alloys

Recrystallization of cold-rolled discontinuous, precipitation microstructurewhich has fine laminar structure in an Al-40 percent Zn (atom fraction) binary alloy is investigatedby optical microscopy, SEM and TEM. It is found that there are two kinds of recrystallizationmechanisms: continuous coarsening (CC) and discontinuous coarsening (DC). The latter can be dividedinto coarsening mainly driven by stored deformation energy at colony boundaries and slip bands andthe one mainly driven by boundary energy in the area with little deformation. It is shown that theaddition of Cu can retard the nucleation of coarsening cells and their growth. X-Ray diffractionanalysis indicated the metastable phase CuZn_4 transformed into equilibrium phase A;_4Cu_3Zn duringthe heating process.

Monotone Iterative Methodfor Nonlinear Discontinuous ParabolicDifferential Equations

In this paper, the existence of solutions for discontinuous nonlinear parabolic differential IBVP is proved by using a more generalized monotone iterative method. Moreover, the convergence of this method is discussed.

Treatment of discontinuities inside Earth models:Effects on computed coseismic deformations

In this paper,we study how coseismic deformations calculated in 1066 Earth models are affected by how the models treat Earth discontinuities.From the results of applying models 1066A(continuous)and 1066B(discontinuous),we find that the difference in Love numbers of strike-slip and horizontal tensile sources are bigger than dip-slip and vertical tensile sources.Taken collectively,discontinuities have major effects on Green’s functions of four independent sources.For the near-field coseismic deformations of the 2013 Okhotsk earthquake(Mw 8.3),the overall differences between theoretical calculations in vertical displacement,geoid,and gravity changes caused by discontinuities are 10.52 percent,9.07 percent and 6.19 percent,with RMS errors of 0.624 mm,0.029 mm,and 0.063μGal,respectively.The difference in far-field displacements is small,compared with GPS data,and we can neglect this effect.For the shallow earthquake,2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake(Mw 9.0),the differences in near-field displacements are 0.030 m(N-S),0.093 m(E-W),and 0.025 m(up-down)in our study area with the ARIA slip model,which gives results closer to GPS data than those from the USGS model.The difference in vertical displacements and gravity changes on the Earth’s surface caused by discontinuities are larger than 10 percent.The difference in the theoretical gravity changes at spatially fixed points truncated to degrees 60,as required by GRACE data,is 0.0016μGal and the discrepancy is 11 percent,with the theoretical spatial gravity changes from 1066B closer to observations than from 1066A.The results show that an Earth model with discontinuities in the medium has a large effect on the calculated coseismic deformations.

THE MIXED PROBLEM FOR A CLASS OF NONLINEAR SYMMETRIC HYPERBOLIC SYSTEMS WITH DISCONTINUOUS DATA

This paper studies the nonlinear mixed problem for a class of symmetric hyperbolic systems with the boundary condition satisfying the dissipative condition about discontinuous data in higher dimension spaces, establishes the local existence theorem by using the method of a prior estimates, and obtains the structure of singularities of the solutions of such problems.