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1. Finite element modeling of meniscal tears using continuum damage mechanics and digital image correlation

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-29111-z  

   Nesbitt, Derek Q. ; Burruel, Dylan E. ; Henderson, Bradley S. ; Lujan, Trevor J. ( March 2023 , Scientific Reports)

   Meniscal tears are a common, painful, and debilitating knee injury with limited treatment options. Computational models that predict meniscal tears may help advance injury prevention and repair, but first these models must be validated using experimental data. Here we simulated meniscal tears with finite element analysis using continuum damage mechanics (CDM) in a transversely isotropic hyperelastic material. Finite element models were built to recreate the coupon geometry and loading conditions of forty uniaxial tensile experiments of human meniscus that were pulled to failure either parallel or perpendicular to the preferred fiber orientation. Two damage criteria were evaluated for all experiments: von Mises stress and maximum normal Lagrange strain. After we successfully fit all models to experimental force–displacement curves (grip-to-grip), we compared model predicted strains in the tear region at ultimate tensile strength to the strains measured experimentally with digital image correlation (DIC). In general, the damage models underpredicted the strains measured in the tear region, but models using von Mises stress damage criterion had better overall predictions and more accurately simulated experimental tear patterns. For the first time, this study has used DIC to expose strengths and weaknesses of using CDM to model failure behavior in soft fibrous tissue.

    

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2. A Novel Plastic Phase‐Field Method for Ductile Fracture with GPU Optimization

   https://doi.org/10.1111/cgf.14130  

   Zhao, Zipeng ; Huang, Kemeng ; Li, Chen ; Wang, Changbo ; Qin, Hong ( November 2020 , Computer Graphics Forum)

   In this paper, we articulate a novel plastic phase‐field (PPF) method that can tightly couple the phase‐field with plastic treatment to efficiently simulate ductile fracture with GPU optimization. At the theoretical level of physically‐based modeling and simulation, our PPF approach assumes the fracture sensitivity of the material increases with the plastic strain accumulation. As a result, we first develop a hardening‐related fracture toughness function towards phase‐field evolution. Second, we follow the associative flow rule and adopt a novel degraded von Mises yield criterion. In this way, we establish the tight coupling of the phase‐field and plastic treatment, with which our PPF method can present distinct elastoplasticity, necking, and fracture characteristics during ductile fracture simulation. At the numerical level towards GPU optimization, we further devise an advanced parallel framework, which takes the full advantages of hierarchical architecture. Our strategy dramatically enhances the computational efficiency of preprocessing and phase‐field evolution for our PPF with the material point method (MPM). Based on our extensive experiments on a variety of benchmarks, our novel method's performance gain can reach 1.56× speedup of the primary GPU MPM. Finally, our comprehensive simulation results have confirmed that this new PPF method can efficiently and realistically simulate complex ductile fracture phenomena in 3D interactive graphics and animation.

    

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3. Utilizing Stress-based Failure Criteria for Prediction of Curing Induced Damage in 3D Woven Composites

   Tsukrov, I. ; Drach, B. ; Drach, A. ; Gross, T. ( August 2017 , Proceedings of 21st International Conference on Composite Materials)

   There are several possible mechanisms of failure of glassy polymers that can be activated by different states of stress in the material. They are reflected in the various failure criteria used to predict initiation of damage in the polymer based on the components of stress tensor. We investigated the applicability of several popular failure criteria (the von Mises, the Drucker-Prager, the parabolic stress, and the dilatational strain energy density) to predict processing-induced damage due to cooling after curing observed in 3D woven composites with high level of through-thickness reinforcement. We developed high-fidelity mesoscale finite element models of orthogonally reinforced carbon/epoxy composites and predicted their response to the uniform temperature drop from the curing to room temperature. Comparison of the simulation results with the X-ray computed microtomography indicates that matrix failure caused by the difference in thermal expansion coefficients of carbon fiber and epoxy resin is well predicted by the dilatational strain energy criterion. Initiation and propagation of this failure was numerically investigated using sequential deactivation of elements exceeding the allowable equivalent stress. 

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4. Prediction of Damage Initiation and Simulation of Damage Propagation in 3D Woven Composites during Processing

   Kuksenko, D. ; Drach, B ; Tsukrov, I. ( October 2017 , Proceedings of the American Society for Composites Technical Conference)

   Some configurations of 3D woven composites are known to be susceptible to processing induced damage in the form of microcracks that develop in the polymer matrix during curing. The microcracking is believed to originate from high residual stresses that develop due to a significant mismatch in the coefficients of thermal expansion between the constituent materials. In this paper, we investigate the applicability of several commonly used stress-based failure criteria for glassy polymers – the von Mises, the Bauwens (Drucker-Prager), the parabolic stress, and the dilatational strain energy density. We study the microcracking phenomenon on the example of the one-to-one orthogonal configuration of the epoxy matrix/carbon fiber 3D woven composites. This configuration is characterized by the high level of the throughthickness reinforcement which appears to exacerbate the matrix damage. The investigation is based on a high-fidelity mesoscale finite element model of an orthogonally reinforced 3D woven composite. We simulate the material’s response to the uniform temperature drop from the curing to room temperature and compare the results of the simulation with the X-ray computed microtomography. We conclude that the curing induced matrix failure is well predicted by the parabolic stress criterion with a proper choice of the material constants. Initiation and propagation of this failure are simulated via sequential deactivation of the elements exceeding the allowable equivalent stress. 

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5. Vadose Zone Thickness Limits Pore‐Fluid Pressure Rise in a Large, Slow‐Moving Earthflow

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JF006415  

   Murphy, C. R. ; Finnegan, N. J. ; Oberle, F. K. J. ( June 2022 , Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface)

   The rate and timing of hydrologically forced landslides is a complex function of precipitation patterns, material properties, topography, and groundwater hydrology. In the simplest form, however, slopes fail when subsurface pore pressure grows large enough to exceed the Mohr‐Coulomb failure criterion. The capacity for pore pressure rise in a landslide is determined in part by the thickness of the unsaturated zone above the water table, which itself is set by weathering patterns that should have predictable patterns across different lithologies. To investigate how this structure affects landslide behavior, we exploit a multi‐year record of precipitation, pore pressure, and velocity from Oak Ridge earthflow, a slow‐moving landslide set in Franciscan mélange, northern California, USA. In conjunction with electrical resistivity tomography and hydraulic conductivity measurements, these data show that Oak Ridge has a thin weathered profile that is comparable in thickness to other mélange landslides in California. We propose that due to the inherently thin vadose zone, mélange landscapes experience an unusually high water table that frequently brings them close to movement; however, the capacity to increase stress is limited by the small amount of dynamic storage available. Instead, excess pore pressure is shed via springs and saturation overland flow once the water table reaches the surface. Linkages between weathering patterns, hydrology, and deformation can explain behavior patterns exhibited by Franciscan mélange earthflows across a large precipitation gradient.

    

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