E.A. Flores-Johnson

The effect of interface adhesion on buckling and cracking of hard thin films

The physics behind the strain-released buckling patterns including telephone cords and straight-sided wrinkles with and without cracks, as experimentally observed in sputter-deposited Ti-Si-N thin films on Si substrates, is investigated with model-based simulations by varying the mechanical properties of the interface. Our calculations reveal that the location of the cracks depends on the normal stiffness, the interfacial toughness, and the normal strength of the cohesive interface. These properties determine the geometrical shape of the buckles such as width, wavelength, and deflection, and hence the local bending-induced tensile stresses. Buckling patterns with cracks at the apexes occur for low-stiffness interfaces as well as for high-stiffness interfaces with high toughness. On the other hand, cracks at the bottom of the buckles are more likely to occur for interfaces with high stiffness and low toughness. By using an elastic material model with a fracture criterion for brittle behavior, we demonstrat...

Effects of heat treatment and strain rate on the microstructure and mechanical properties of 6061 Al alloy

In the present work, the effects of heat treatment and strain rate on mechanical behaviour and microstructure evolution of aluminium alloy 6061 have been investigated. The micro-crack initiation and crystallographic texture evolution are obtained from scanning electron microscope and electron back-scatter diffraction experiments. Quasi-static and high strain rate compression tests are conducted on AA6061 specimens that underwent two different heat treatments: the as-received material with the original T6 heat treatment and the heat treated and artificially aged specimens. For the high strain rate compression (∼2000 and ∼4000 s−1) tests, the split Hopkinson pressure bar apparatus is used. It is observed that the additional heat treatment has significantly reduced the yield strength of the material. Furthermore, electron back-scatter diffraction results show that the higher the applied strain rate is, the less significant change will happen to the texture. Scanning electron microscope images show that, for both T6 and HT specimens, the number and size of micro-cracks in the dynamic compressed specimens are smaller than in the quasi-static deformed specimen. Therefore, the strain rate is considered to be the dominant factor in forming micro-cracks.

Numerical Investigation on Fracturing of Rock under Blast Using Coupled Finite Element Method and Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

This paper aims to provide a coupled finite element method (FEM) and smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) approach capable of reproducing the blast response in rock. In the proposed approach, SPH is used to simulate large deformation and fracture of rock at the near detonation zone, while the FEM is adopted to capture the far field response of the rock. The explosive is modelled explicitly using SPH. The numerical simulations are carried out using LS-DYNA. The interaction of the SPH particles and FEM elements was modelled by the node to surface contact, and for the interactions between explosive and rock SPH parts node to node penalty based contact was used. In the present study, the Johnson and Holmquist constitutive model is used for rock. Jones–Wilkins–Lee model is used for TNT explosive. It is found that the preliminary numerical simulation reproduces some of the well-known phenomena observed experimentally by other researchers. The numerical results indicate that the coupled SPH-FEM approach used in this work can be applied to simulate effectively both compressive and tensile damage of rock subjected to blast loading.

Static friction between rigid fractal surfaces.

Using spheropolygon-based simulations and contact slope analysis, we investigate the effects of surface topography and atomic scale friction on the macroscopically observed friction between rigid blocks with fractal surface structures. From our mathematical derivation, the angle of macroscopic friction is the result of the sum of the angle of atomic friction and the slope angle between the contact surfaces. The latter is obtained from the determination of all possible contact slopes between the two surface profiles through an alternative signature function. Our theory is validated through numerical simulations of spheropolygons with fractal Koch surfaces and is applied to the description of frictional properties of Weierstrass-Mandelbrot surfaces. The agreement between simulations and theory suggests that for interpreting macroscopic frictional behavior, the descriptors of surface morphology should be defined from the signature function rather than from the slopes of the contacting surfaces.

A Technique for the Elimination of Stress Waves Overlapping in the Split Hopkinson Pressure bar

For valid results in split Hopkinson pressure bar testing, the strain history in the incident bar must be measured at a location where the incident and reflected waves do not overlap. This may prove problematic if the loading pulse is long relative to the length of the incident bar, e.g. due to pulse shaping or when long pressure bars are not available. In this paper an experimental technique for the elimination of overlapping stress waves is presented. By ensuring that the incident wave traverses the bar without noticeable dispersive oscillatory components, a complete pulse history free from superpositioning stress waves can be rapidly constructed via the collation of data from two sets of strain gauges attached at two locations on the incident bar. Experimentation on a sand specimen subsequently validated via finite element modeling demonstrates the advantage of this wave collation technique as it enables the use of longer loading pulses while still satisfying all necessary requirements pertinent to valid Hopkinson bar investigations.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of hard Acrocomia mexicana fruit shell

Fruit and nut shells can exhibit high hardness and toughness. In the peninsula of Yucatan, Mexico, the fruit of the Cocoyol palm tree (Acrocomia mexicana) is well known to be very difficult to break. Its hardness has been documented since the 1500 s, and is even mentioned in the popular Maya legend The Dwarf of Uxmal. However, until now, no scientific studies quantifying the mechanical performance of the Cocoyol endocarp has been found in the literature to prove or disprove that this fruit shell is indeed “very hard”. Here we report the mechanical properties, microstructure and hardness of this material. The mechanical measurements showed compressive strength values of up to ~150 and ~250 MPa under quasi-static and high strain rate loading conditions, respectively, and microhardness of up to ~0.36 GPa. Our findings reveal a complex hierarchical structure showing that the Cocoyol shell is a functionally graded material with distinctive layers along the radial directions. These findings demonstrate that structure-property relationships make this material hard and tough. The mechanical results and the microstructure presented herein encourage designing new types of bioinspired superior synthetic materials.

Finite-Element Modelling of the Impact Behaviour of Aluminium Nacre-Like Composite

The demand for energy-absorbing lightweight structures for impact applications in automotive, aerospace and defence industry is rapidly growing, posing a challenge for innovative engineering design to maintain lightweight without reducing damage tolerance and impact and shock absorption. In this context, biological materials offer a source of inspiration for the design of new materials. Nacre, commonly known as the mother-of-pearl, is a biological material that exhibits outstanding mechanical properties due to its hierarchical structure, which includes a brick-like pattern, layer waviness and interface. Although nacre is made of 95% of aragonite, a brittle material, its toughness is about 3000 larger than that of aragonite. Research addressing the behaviour of nacre-like engineering composites is limited and this work intends to contribute to the understanding of such materials under impact loading. In this paper, the study of the impact behaviour of layered nacre-like plates made of 1-mm thick tablets of aluminium alloy 7075 glued with toughened epoxy resin is performed using Abaqus/Explicit. A 9-mm steel spherical projectile with initial impact velocities in the range of 400-900 m/s is used. The epoxy material is modelled using a user-defined cohesive element that accounts for the experimentally observable increase in both strength and toughness in compression. Target thicknesses of 5 and 7 mm are modelled. The ballistic performance of bulk plates made of bulk Al-7075 is compared with that of nacre-like composite plates of the same thickness. It is found that the nacre-like structures performed slightly better than the bulk plate for high impact velocities with a reduction of about 9% in the residual velocity; however, for lower impact velocities close to the ballistic limit, nacre-like plates performed worse than the bulk plate. The higher performance at higher impact velocities of the nacre-like composites is attributed to the hierarchical structure that enables both localized energy absorption by deformation of the metallic tablet and tablet interlocking due to the waviness and inter-layered delamination, which allows plastic deformation further away from the impact zone. It is concluded that nacre-like aluminium composite plates should be further investigated for their potential in designing protective structures because they could enable substantial improvements in weight-savings and in the ballistic performance of the structure. However, a quantitative assessment of their benefit warrants further numerical and experimental research.

Finite Element Modelling of Stress-Induced Fracture in Ti-Si-N Films

Nanocomposite coating films have been increasingly used in industrial applications because of their unique mechanical and physical properties. Residual stresses generated during the growth of sputter-deposited thin films due to a strain mismatch between the film and the substrate may lead to significant failure problems. Large residual stresses may generate buckling, delamination and film fracture. Although buckles with cracks in thin films have been experimentally observed, their origins are still not well understood.