The effects of silicon (Si) on the mechanical properties and fracture toughness of heavy-section ductile cast iron were investigated to develop material for spent-nuclear-fuel containers. Two castings with different Si contents of 1.78 wt.% and 2.74 wt.% were prepared. Four positions in the castings from the edge to the center, with different solidification cooling rates, were chosen for micros...

Introduction: Because of the importance of vertebral compressive fracture (VCF) role in increasing the patients’ death rate and reducing their quality of life, many studies have been conducted for a noninvasive prediction of vertebral compressive strength based on bone mineral density (BMD) determination and recently finite element analysis. In this study, QCT-voxel based nonlinear finite eleme...

In this paper, we use an extended form of the finite element method to study failure in polycrystalline microstructures. Quasi-static crack propagation is conducted using the extended finite element method (X-FEM) and microstructures are simulated using a kinetic Monte Carlo Potts algorithm. In the X-FEM, the framework of partition of unity is used to enrich the classical finite element approxi...

The dynamic thermomechanical response of a tungsten heavy alloy is investigated via modeling and numerical simulation. The material of study consists of relatively stiff pure tungsten grains embedded within a more ductile matrix alloy comprised of tungsten, nickel, and iron. Constitutive models implemented for each phase account for finite deformation, heat conduction, plastic anisotropy, strai...

The hybrid boundary element method, a variational formulation introduced in 1987 by the first author, has proven to be a powerful tool for dealing with a great variety of problems of potential, elastostatics and elastodynamics. One of the most recent endeavors of the research team at PUC-Rio is the application of the method to problems of the linear elastic fracture mechanics. In the M.Sc. diss...

In several practical cases, the ultimate ductile fracture strain determined with tensile test is accepted as a material plasticity measure 1 . In this case, the plasticity has to be defined as an ability of a material to accommodate high permanent strains until fracture appears where this strain reaches certain value called ultimate fracture strain p. The strain value until fracture depends not...

Three-point bend fracture tests have been conducted at different loading rates with a quadratic martensitic steel. The failure energy has found to increase rate. To get insights in this numerical investigation undertaken strategies using ABAQUS and IMPETUS softwares order address quasi-static dynamic conditions. Simulations were the software carry out comparative analysis of both implicit expli...