Mini-symposium S6

S6: (Environment Induced) Fracture and Damage

Co-chairs: 

Tim Hageman (University of Oxford)*; Sara Jiménez Alfaro (Imperial College London)

Key words: Fracture, Damage, Multiphysics, Computational Mechanics.

ABSTRACT

The development of fractures and damaged regions by themselves are already complex phenomena to simulate, requiring computational methods capable of tracking moving fracture faces (e.g. interface elements, remeshing, X-FEM) or represent these interfaces in a smeared manner (e.g. phase-field methods, damage mechanics). However, the damage is typically not a result of solely mechanical forces applied to the material. Instead, cracks are often a result of interactions with the environment: Fluids can pressurise cracks causing them to propagate (hydro-fracture), chemical processes can weaken the material or cause dissolution (corrosion, hydrogen embrittlement, biodegradable materials), and aggressive environments can cause rapid ageing or induce additional internal strains (radiation, thermal effects), to provide a few examples. Including these environmental interactions poses further challenges: How can the set of multi-physics equations be coupled in a stable and efficient manner? How are processes occurring within fractures and voids included, while this interior is not included in the mesh of the solid? What happens to material points if they become fully damaged/dissolved? How are the large time-scales over which the degradation and subsequent fracture occurs captured?

This mini-symposium covers both the fracture and environmental aspects: Considering the simulation of fractures and material damage, how these are coupled to and driven by other processes, and the methods used to simulate these environmental processes. Application-focussed, as well as more fundamental presentations are both encouraged.