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...

The propagation of fractures during the drying of a colloidal silica suspension confined in a vertical microtube is investigated. During the drying process, the particle concentration increases until gel formation. In the gelled region, the tensile stresses increase and lead to the formation of two vertical perpendicular cracks propagating in the drying direction, dividing the tube into four eq...

Durability of reinforced concrete (RC) structures is affected by certain environmental conditions and operational actions which can reduce their lifetime significantly. Among these actions, this paper proposes a stochastic model that accounts for the combined effects of chloride-induced corrosion, climate change and cyclic loading. Separately, corrosion leads to cross-section reduction, climate...

The onset and propagation of the cracks and compaction bands, and the interactions between them in the host matrix, are important for numerous engineering applications, such as hydraulic fracture and CO2 storage. While crack may become flow conduit that leads to leakage, formation of compaction band often accompanies significant porosity reduction that prevents fluid to flow through. The object...

This article reviews possible mechanisms of various crack forms and their likely correlations with interior crystal lamellae and discontinuous interfaces in spherulites. Complex yet periodically repetitive patterns of cracks in spherulites are beyond attributions via differences in thermal expansion coefficients, which would cause random and irregular cracks in the contract direction only. Crac...

In this work, the mechanism for fracture of brittle substances such as rocks under a uniform normal tension is considered. The oriented straight micro-cracks are mostly created in all the polycrystalline materials resulting from the stress concentrations. The present work focuses on the interactions of the pre-existing micro-cracks, which can grow and propagate within a rock-like specimen. The ...

Rolling friction has been explained in terms of crack propagation through an adhesive joint. The contact between a smooth cylinder and flat has been regarded as an adhesive junction bounded by two cracks moving in the same direction at the same speed, one crack continually opening and one closing. Propagation of these cracks requires a force which is calculated from crack theory and shown to be...

We develop a model for the propagation of a fluid-filled crack in a porous medium. The problem is motivated by the mechanism whereby drainage networks may form in partially molten rock below the Earth‘s lithosphere. Other applications include the propagation of hydraulic fractures in jointed rocks and in oil drilling operations, and the formation of dessication cracks in soils. Motivated by the...

The size and the character (low and large angle, special boundaries, tilt and twist boundaries, twins) of the grain boundaries (GBs) in polycrystalline materials influence their strength and their fracture toughness. Recent studies devoted to nanocrystalline (NC) materials have shown a deviation from the Hall-Petch law. Special GBs formed by Σ3 twins in face-centred cubic metals are also known ...