A novel, two-scale computational model has been developed to predict the progressive damage and failure responses of fiber-reinforced composite laminates using the material properties at the constituent (fiber and matrix) level. These properties were measured from coupon level tests on a unidirectional lamina of the same material system. In the proposed computational scheme, the macroscale fini...

A fracture theory for a heterogeneous aggregate material which exhibits a gradual strainsoftening due to microcracking and contains aggregate pieces that are not necessarily small compared to struttural dimensions is developed. Only Mode I is considered. The fracture is modeled as a blunt smeared crack band, which is justified by the random nature of the microstructure. Simple triaxial stress-s...

Most tissues in the body are under mechanical tension, and while enzymes mediate many cellular and extracellular processes, the effects of mechanical forces on enzyme reactions in the native extracellular matrix (ECM) are not fully understood. We hypothesized that physiological levels of mechanical forces are capable of modifying the activity of collagenase, a key remodeling enzyme of the ECM. ...

The necking instability is a precursor to tensile failure and rupture of materials. A quasistatically loaded free-standing uniaxial specimen typically exhibits at single location, thus corresponding long wavelength bifurcation mode. If confined substrate or embedded in matrix the same filament can exhibit periodic fragmentation creating segments finite length. While such instabilities have been...

Fiber Optic Sensors (FOS) offer numerous advantages for structural health monitoring. In addition to being durable, lightweight, and capable of multiplexing, they offer the ability to monitor strain in both static and dynamic mode. FOS also allow for instrumentation of large areas of a structure with long-gage sensors which helps enable global monitoring of the structure. Drawing upon these ben...

In this paper, a new indicator to localize fatigue damage in fibre glass composite structure, i.e. spar cap shear web thick adhesive joint of wind turbine blade, is presented. This based on the effect damping phase mode shapes structure. When occurs, increases defective area and leads an increase local energy dissipation. non-uniformity dissipation throughout structure causes vibrate with whose...

The existence of Eshelby’s equivalent inclusion solution is proved for a degenerate “transformed” ellipsoidal inhomogeneity in an infinite anisotropic linear elastic matrix. We prove the invertibility of the fourth rank tensor expression, C S + C(I − SE), where C is the stiffness tensor of the matrix, C ′ is the stiffness tensor of the inhomogeneity, SE is the Eshelby tensor, and I is the symme...

Abstract In this work a procedure to compute the dispersion curves for one dimensional viscoelastic waveguides exploiting the finite element based global mass matrix and complex stiffness matrix is proposed. The global matrices of a finite length portion of the waveguide, the unit cell, are post-processed by enforcing Bloch-type boundary conditions along the wave propagation direction and next ...

Cancer cell invasion from primary tumors is mediated by a complex interplay between cellular adhesions, actomyosin-driven contractility, and the physical characteristics of the extracellular matrix (ECM). Here, we incorporate a mechanochemical free-energy-based approach to elucidate how the two-way feedback loop between cell contractility (induced by the activity of chemomechanical interactions...