Numerical model of thermo-mechanical coupling for the tensile failure process of brittle materials

Abstract

A numerical model of thermal cracking with a thermo-mechanical coupling effect was established. The theory of tensile failure and heat conduction is used to study the tensile failure process of brittle materials, such as rock and concrete under high temperature environment. The validity of the model is verified by thick-wall cylinders with analytical solutions. The failure modes of brittle materials under thermal stresses caused by temperature gradient and different thermal expansion coefficient were studied by using a thick-wall cylinder model and an embedded particle model, respectively. In the thick-wall cylinder model, different forms of cracks induced by temperature gradient were obtained under different temperature boundary conditions. In the embedded particle model, radial cracks were produced in the medium part with lower tensile strength when temperature increased because of the different thermal expansion coefficient. Model results are in good agreement with the experimental results, thereby providing a new finite element method for analyzing the thermal damage process and mechanism of brittle materials.

A Review on the Impact of High-Temperature Treatment on the Physico-Mechanical, Dynamic, and Thermal Properties of Granite

“…The correlation between temperature and mechanical characteristics was analyzed. Yu-Fu et al [77] presented a numerical model to analyze the thermomechanical behavior of brittle materials and the relationship between temperature and mechanical properties of materials. Mohammod-Taghi et al [78] conducted research on seven different natural building rocks to analyze the mechanical and physical performance of materials.…”

Thermo-Mechanical Coupling Model of Bond-Based Peridynamics for Quasi-Brittle Materials

“…Extensive numerical investigations have been devoted to understanding the thermal damage behavior of quasi-brittle materials, which are generally based on continuum mechanics approaches. Various numerical approaches have been developed on the basis of the Finite Element Method (FEM) [ 8 , 9 , 10 ], Extended Finite Element Method (X-FEM) [ 11 ], Finite Difference Method (FDM) [ 12 ], and Boundary Element Method (BEM), etc. Since the numerical approaches mentioned above are based on continuum mechanics, in which partial differential equations need to be solved to find the numerical solution, the ability to deal with the problem of cracks and fractures is often limited, even after the introduction of special-made shape functions in X-FEM.…”