Giuliano Lazzaroni

A MODEL FOR CRACK PROPAGATION BASED ON VISCOUS APPROXIMATION

In the setting of antiplane linearized elasticity, we show the existence of quasistatic evolutions of cracks in brittle materials by using a vanishing viscosity approach, thus taking into account local minimization. The main feature of our model is that the path followed by the crack need not be prescribed a priori: indeed, it is found as the limit (in the sense of Hausdorff convergence) of curves obtained by an incremental procedure. The result is based on a continuity property for the energy release rate in a suitable class of admissible cracks.

Rate-Independent Damage in Thermo-Viscoelastic Materials with Inertia

We present a model for rate-independent, unidirectional, partial damage in visco-elastic materials with inertia and thermal effects. The damage process is modeled by means of an internal variable, governed by a rate-independent flow rule. The heat equation and the momentum balance for the displacements are coupled in a highly nonlinear way. Our assumptions on the corresponding energy functional also comprise the case of the Ambrosio–Tortorelli phase-field model (without passage to the brittle limit). We discuss a suitable weak formulation and prove an existence theorem obtained with the aid of a (partially) decoupled time-discrete scheme and variational convergence methods. We also carry out the asymptotic analysis for vanishing viscosity and inertia and obtain a fully rate-independent limit model for displacements and damage, which is independent of temperature.

On the role of kinetic energy during unstable propagation in a heterogeneous peeling test

We study the dynamic debonding of a one-dimensional inextensible film, subject to a monotonic loading and under the hypothesis that the toughness of the glue can take only two values. We first consider the case of a single defect of small length in the glue where the toughness is lower than in the remaining part. The dynamic solution is obtained in a closed form and we prove that it does not converge to the expected quasi-static one when the loading speed tends to zero. The gap is due to a kinetic energy which appears when the debonding propagates across the defect at a velocity which is of the same order as the sound velocity. The kinetic energy becomes negligible again only when the debonding has reached a critical distance beyond the defect. The case of many defects is then considered and solved using an exact numerical solution of the wave equation and the Griffith law of propagation. The numerical results highlight the effects of the time evolution of the kinetic energy which induce alternate phases of rapid and slow debonding, these oscillations depending essentially on the volume fraction of the highest toughness.

Analysis of a dynamic peeling test with speed-dependent toughness

We analyse a one-dimensional model of dynamic debonding for a thin film, where the local toughness of the glue between the film and the substrate also depends on the debonding speed. The wave equat...

Derivation of a rod theory from lattice systems with interactions beyond nearest neighbours

We study continuum limits of discrete models for (possibly heterogeneous) nanowires. The lattice energy includes at least nearest and next-to-nearest neighbour interactions: the latter have the role of penalising changes of orientation. In the heterogeneous case, we obtain an estimate on the minimal energy spent to match different equilibria. This gives insight into the nucleation of dislocations in epitaxially grown heterostructured nanowires.

On the Quasistatic Limit of Dynamic Evolutions for a Peeling Test in Dimension One

The aim of this paper is to study the quasistatic limit of a one-dimensional model of dynamic debonding. We start from a dynamic problem that strongly couples the wave equation in a time-dependent domain with Griffith’s criterion for the evolution of the domain. Passing to the limit as inertia tends to zero, we find that the limit evolution satisfies a stability condition; however, the activation rule in Griffith’s (quasistatic) criterion does not hold in general, thus the limit evolution is not rate-independent.

Some remarks on a model for rate-independent damage in thermo-visco-elastodynamics

This note deals with the analysis of a model for partial damage, where the rate- independent, unidirectional flow rule for the damage variable is coupled with the rate-dependent heat equation, and with the momentum balance featuring inertia and viscosity according to Kelvin-Voigt rheology. The results presented here combine the approach from Roubicek [1, 2] with the methods from Lazzaroni/Rossi/Thomas/Toader [3]. The present analysis encompasses, differently from [2], the monotonicity in time of damage and the dependence of the viscous tensor on damage and temperature, and, unlike [3], a nonconstant heat capacity and a time-dependent Dirichlet loading.

Cohesive fracture with irreversibility: Quasistatic evolution for a model subject to fatigue

In this paper we prove the existence of quasistatic evolutions for a cohesive fracture on a prescribed crack surface, in small-strain antiplane elasticity. The main feature of the model is that the density of the energy dissipated in the fracture process depends on the total variation of the amplitude of the jump. Thus, any change in the crack opening entails a loss of energy, until the crack is complete. In particular this implies a fatigue phenomenon, i.e., a complete fracture may be produced by oscillation of small jumps. The first step of the existence proof is the construction of approximate evolutions obtained by solving discrete-time incremental minimum problems. The main difficulty in the passage to the continuous-time limit is that we lack of controls on the variations of the jump of the approximate evolutions. Therefore we resort to a weak formulation where the variation of the jump is replaced by a Young measure. Eventually, after proving the existence in this weak formulation, we improve the result by showing that the Young measure is concentrated on a function and coincides with the variation of the jump of the displacement.