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MODELLAZIONE STOCASTICA DEL PROCESSO DI FRATTURA IN MATERIALI COMPOSITI A MATRICE CERAMICA, IN
Last modified: 2008-05-26
Abstract
In this work, an approach for numerical modeling of the fracture process of complex materials microstructures is presented. It is well known that the relation between a material microstructure and the resulting macroscopic properties is a problem of great practical interest. Thus, we study the effect of the particular microstructure on the fracture mechanism and damage accumulation. To this aim, OOF, an innovative finite element code developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technologies (USA) and MIT (USA), is adopted. The innovative feature of this code is that the finite element method is applied at the microscale, so that all microstructural details can be included in the numerical model. This code can be used in conjunction with fracture criteria suitable for the description of brittle fracture: the Griffith criterion and a statistical approach based on the Weibull law. This approach allows to study crack initiation, propagation and damage accumulation in brittle materials of industrial interest, such as ceramic matrix composites, refractory materials, porous materials, innovative materials with complex microstructures. In particular, it is possible to study the effect of microstructural parameters on the fracture behavior and to optimize the microstructure in order to obtain an optimal response to prescribed thermomechanical loads.
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