Effects of interface adhesive and resin cohesive strength on tensile strength of resin sand based on numerical analysis

Abstract

A plane-strain unit-cell finite element model was proposed to study the effects of resin/sand interface adhesive and resin cohesive strength on the overall tensile strength of resin sand, as well as the fracture modes. The main micro-scale characteristics of the numerical model were extracted from the micrograph of resin sand specimens by three-dimensional X-ray microscopy (3D-XRM). The extended finite element method (XFEM) and cohesive behavior method were employed to explicitly describe the resin fracture and sand/resin interface debonding, separately. The corresponding experimental observation of micro-scale failure behavior based on the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was presented for a comparison. The numerical results show that the initial failure of the model occurs at the sand/resin interface, followed by consequent resin failure. Dependent on the resin cohesive strength, the location of resin failure varies from the central zones to resin neck arc zones. A typical mixed mode fracture is observed, which is consistent with the corresponding micro-scale experimental observation. When the resin cohesive strength ranges between 8 and 12 MPa, the resin cracks occur at the central zone of resin bridges and propagate perpendicularly to the tensile direction until through cracks happen. At a higher range (between 12 and 16 MPa), interface cracks cross with resin cracks, bonding bridges of resin sand are broken. The interface adhesive strength has a more significant effect on the overall tensile strength of resin sand than the resin cohesive strength. The overall tensile strength of resin sand increases first then keeps stable with the increase of the resin cohesive strength. This work attempts to establish a numerical model which accurately describes the complicated mixed mode fracture of resin sand, which is beneficial to understand deeply the fracture mechanism of resin sand.