No abstract

The aim of this paper is to develop new computational tools to study fatigue crack propagation in structural materials. In particular we compare the performance of different degradation strategies to study fatigue crack propagation phenomena adopting peridynamic based computational methods. Three fatigue degradation laws are proposed. Two of them are original. Initially a cylinder model is used to compare the computational performance of the three fatigue laws and to study their robustness with respect to variations of discretization parameters. Then the fatigue degradation strategies are implemented in a peridynamic framework for fatigue crack propagation analyses. Both cylinder model and peridynamic simulations show that the third proposed degradation law is unique in its combination of high accuracy, high stability and low computational cost.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to apply the Peridynamic differential operator (PDDO) to incompressible inviscid fluid flow with moving boundaries. Based on the potential flow theory, a Lagrangian formulation is used to cope with non-linear free-surface waves of sloshing water in 2D and 3D rectangular and square tanks. Design/methodology/approach In fact, PDDO recasts the local differentiation operator through a nonlocal integration scheme. This makes the method capable of determining the derivatives of a field variable, more precisely than direct differentiation, when jump discontinuities or gradient singularities come into the picture. The issue of gradient singularity can be found in tanks containing vertical/horizontal baffles. Findings The application of PDDO helps to obtain the velocity field with a high accuracy at each time step that leads to a suitable geometry updating for the procedure. Domain/boundary nodes are updated by using a second-order finite difference time algorithm. The method is applied to the solution of different examples including tanks with baffles. The accuracy of the method is scrutinized by comparing the numerical results with analytical, numerical and experimental results available in the literature. Originality/value Based on the investigations, PDDO can be considered a reliable and suitable approach to cope with sloshing problems in tanks. The paper paves the way to apply the method for a wider range of problems such as compressible fluid flow.

No abstract

A chemo-thermo-mechanical problem is solved using a peridynamic approach to investigate crack propagation in non-reinforced concrete at early-age. In the present study, the temperature evolution and the variation of the hydration degree in conjunction with the mechanical behaviour of cement-based materials are examined. Firstly, a new peridynamic model is introduced to solve fully coupled chemo-thermal problems by satisfying thermal equilibrium condition and hydration law simultaneously and then the effects of the chemo-thermal analysis are imposed in the mechanical framework to investigate all the interactions. The proposed approach is used to solve 2D chemo-thermo-elastic problems and then it is applied to investigate the fracture of concrete structures. Additionally, we examine the accuracy of the method by comparing the crack paths, temperature and hydration degree with those achieved by applying other numerical methods and the experimental data available in the literature. A good agreement is obtained between all sets of results.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract