Gurtin Murdoch Surface Elasticity Model Research Articles

Plane-Strain Fracture with Curvature-Dependent Surface Tension: Mixed-Mode Loading

There have been a number of recent papers by various authors addressing static fracture in the setting of the linearized theory of elasticity in the bulk augmented by a model for surface mechanics on fracture surfaces with the goal of developing a fracture theory in which stresses and strains remain bounded at crack-tips without recourse to the introduction of a crack-tip cohesive-zone or process-zone. In this context, surface mechanics refers to viewing interfaces separating distinct material phases as dividing surfaces, in the sense of Gibbs, endowed with excess physical properties such as internal energy, entropy and stress. One model for the mechanics of fracture surfaces that has received much recent attention is based upon the Gurtin-Murdoch surface elasticity model. However, it has been shown recently that while this model removes the strong (square-root) crack-tip stress/strain singularity, it replaces it with a weak (logarithmic) one. A simpler model for surface stress assumes that the surface stress tensor is Eulerian, consisting only of surface tension. If surface tension is assumed to be a material constant and the classical fracture boundary condition is replaced by the jump momentum balance relations on crack surfaces, it has been shown that the classical strong (square-root) crack-tip stress/strain singularity is removed and replaced by a weak, logarithmic singularity. If, in addition, surface tension is assumed to have a (linearized) dependence upon the crack-surface mean-curvature, it has been shown for pure mode I (opening mode), the logarithmic stress/strain singularity is removed leaving bounded crack-tip stresses and strains. However, it has been shown that curvature-dependent surface tension is insufficient for removing the logarithmic singularity for mixed mode (mode I, mode II) cracks. The purpose of this note is to demonstrate that a simple modification of the curvature-dependent surface tension model leads to bounded crack-tip stresses and strains under mixed mode I and mode II loading.

Simple geometrical explanation of Gurtin-Murdoch model of surface elasticity with clarification of its related versions

It is showed that all equations of the linearized Gurtin-Murdoch model of surface elasticity can be derived, in a straightforward way, from a simple second-order expression for the ratio of deformed surface area to initial surface area. This elementary derivation offers a simple explanation for all unique features of the model and its simplified/modified versions, and helps to clarify some misunderstandings of the model already occurring in the literature. Finally, it is demonstrated that, because the Gurtin-Murdoch model is based on a hybrid formulation combining linearized deformation of bulk material with 2nd-order finite deformation of the surface, caution is needed when the original form of this model is applied to bending deformation of thin-walled elastic structures with surface stress.

Integral equation methods in plane-strain elasticity with boundary reinforcement

In this paper, a linear theory of elastic boundary reinforcement of an elastic solid is developed for plane–strain deformations. The reinforcement consists of a thin elastic coating bonded to part of the boundary of the solid. The elastic properties of the coating incorporate both extensibility and bending rigidity. Interior and exterior mixed–boundary problems are formulated and solved using integral equation methods. The boundary value problems are reduced to systems of singular integro–differential equations to which Noether–type theorems are shown to apply. The case corresponding to a coating which has only extensibility properties and no bending rigidity is particularly interesting from a mathematical point of view and is given special attention. Finally, existence and uniqueness results are presented for both interior and exterior reinforcement problems of plane–strain.