Die compaction of powders is a process which involves filling a die with powder, compression of the powder using rigid punches to form a dense compact, and ejection from the die. The choice of powder composition and selection of process parameters determine the microstructure and final properties of the compacts. The practical issues in the powder-forming industries (powder metallurgy, ceramics, hard metals, pharmaceuticals, detergents, etc.)
Understanding the impact failure of particles made of brittle materials such as glasses, ceramics and rocks is an important issue for many engineering applications. During the impact, a solid particle is turned into a discrete assembly of many fragments through the development of multiple cracks. The finite element method is fundamentally ill-equipped to model this transition. Recently a so-called material point method (MPM) has been used to study a wide range of problems of material and structural failures. In this paper we propose a new material point model for the brittle failure which incorporates a statistical failure criterion. The capability of the method for modelling multiple cracks is demonstrated using disc particles. Three impact failure patterns observed experimentally are captured by the model: Hertzian ring cracks, meridian cracks, and multi-fragment cracks. Detailed stress analysis is carried out to interpret the experimental observations. In particular it is shown that the experimentally observed dependence of a threshold velocity for the initiation of meridian cracks on the particle size can be explained by the proposed model. The material points based scheme requires a relatively modest programming effort and avoids node splitting which makes it very attractive over the traditional finite element method.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.