This paper investigates the roles of external loads and specimen geometry on crack path selection in adhesively bonded joints. First, the effect of mixed mode fracture on crack path selection is studied. Using epoxy as an adhesive and aluminum as the adherends, double cantilever beam (DCB) specimens with various T-stress levels are prepared and tested under mixed mode fracture loading. Post-fai...

A set of Shock Wave Lithotripsy(SWL) related experimental observations including 3D dynamic crack propagation, reported in literature, are simulated with the aim of understanding the fragmentation of kidney stone with SWL. Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is the fragmentation of kidney stones by focusing an ultrasonic pressure pulse onto the stones. 3D models with fine discretizatio...

This paper presents a stochastic model of fatigue-induced crack propagation in metallic materials. The crack growth rate predicted by the model is guaranteed to be non-negative. The model structure is built upon the underlying principle of Karhunen±Lo eve expansion and does not require solutions of stochastic di€erential equations in either Wiener integral or Itô integral setting. As such this ...

Although the propagation of fatigue cracks has been recognized as a problem of clinical significance in dentin, there have been few fracture mechanics-based studies that have investigated this issue. In the present study, in vitro cyclic fatigue experiments were conducted over a range of cyclic frequencies (1-50 Hz) on elephant dentin in order to quantify fatigue-crack growth behavior from the ...

Interest in extending the high cycle fatigue life of structures has increased in the last decade of the 20th century. Since a long fatigue life depends on keeping cyclic loads near or below the fatigue threshold, understanding near-threshold behavior is now all the more important. This paper reviews the status of the ‘threshold of fatigue’ and to a lesser extent its relation to the ‘fatigue lim...

The overall objective of this work has been to develop and evaluate tools for designing against fatigue in gas turbine applications, with special focus on the nickelbased superalloy Inconel 718. The fatigue crack propagation behaviour under high temperature hold times has been studied. Firstly, the main fatigue crack propagation phenomena have been investigated with the aim of setting up a basi...

The propagation of (planar) cracks in a heterogeneous brittle material characterized by a random field of toughness is considered, taking into account explicitly the effect of the crack front roughness on the local stress intensity factor. In the socalled strong-pinning regime, the onset of crack propagation appears to map onto a second-order phase transition characterized by universal critical...

Structural integrity of bone tissue plays an important role in daily activities of humans. However, traumatic incidents such as sports injuries, collisions and falls can cause bone fracture, servere pain and mobility loss. In addition, ageing and degenerative bone diseases such as osteoporosis can increase the risk of fracture [1]. As a composite-like material, a cortical bone tissue is capable...

Numerical methods such as boundary element and finite element methods are widely used for the stress analysis in solid mechanics. This study presents boundary element method based on the displacement discontinuity formulation to solve general problems of interaction between hydraulic fracturing and discontinuities. The crack tip element and a higher order boundary displacement collocation techn...

The cracked Brazilian disc (CBD) specimen is widely used in order to determine mode-I/II and mixed-mode fracture toughness of a rock medium. In this study, the stress intensity factor (SIF) on the crack-tip in this specimen is calculated for various geometrical crack conditions using the extended-finite element method (X-FEM). This method is based upon the finite element method (FEM). In this m...