Quasibrittle Fracture Mechanics and Size Effect

Abstract

Abstract Many modern engineering structures are composed of brittle heterogenous (a.k.a. quasibrittle) materials. These materials include concrete (an archetype), composites, tough ceramics, rocks, cold asphalt mixtures, and many brittle materials at the microscale. Understanding the failure behavior of these materials is of paramount importance for improving the resilience and sustainability of various engineering structures including civil infrastructure, aircraft, ships, military armors, and microelectronic devices. This book provides a comprehensive treatment of quasibrittle fracture mechanics. It first presents a concise but rigorous and complete treatment of the linear elastic fracture mechanics, which is the foundation of all fracture mechanics. The topics covered include energy balance analysis of fracture, analysis of near-tip field and stress intensity factors, Irwin's relationship, J-integral, calculation of compliance function and deflection, and analysis of interfacial crack. Built upon the content of linear elastic fracture mechanics, the book presents various fundamental concepts of nonlinear fracture mechanics, which include estimation of inelastic zone size, cohesive crack model, equivalent linear elastic fracture mechanics model, R-curve, and crack band model. The book also discusses some more advanced concepts such as the effects of the triaxial stress state in the fracture process zone, nonlocal continuum models, and discrete computational model. The significant part of the book is devoted to the discussion of the energetic and statistical size effects, which is a salient feature of quasibrittle fracture. The book also presents probabilistic fracture mechanics, and its consequent reliability-based structural analysis and design of quasibrittle structures. Finally, the book provides an extensive review of various practical applications of quasibrittle fracture mechanics.