Representative elementary volume

About: Representative elementary volume is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4105 publications have been published within this topic receiving 86863 citations.

Modelling of failure mode transition in ballistic penetration with a continuum model describing microcracking and flow of pulverized media

Abstract: An Erratum has been published for this article in International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 2002; 55(4):499–501. A new continuum model to describe damage, fragmentation and large deformation of pulverized brittle materials is presented. The multiple-plane-microcracking (MPM) model, developed by Espinosa, has been modified to track microcracking on 13 orientations under high pressure, high strain rate and high deformation. This model provides the elastic and inelastic response of the material before massive crack coalescence. When pulverization occurs, the constitutive response is modelled by means of a visco-plastic model for granular material, which is a generalization to three dimensions of the double-sliding theory augmented by a consolidation mechanism. The initialization of the granular model is governed by a yield surface at the onset of massive crack coalescence. This is accomplished by examining a representative volume element, modelled using the MPM model, in compression-shear. The main advantage of this approach is to keep a continuum model at all stages of the deformation process and thus avoid the difficulties of crack representation in a discrete finite element code. This model has been implemented in LS-DYNA and used to examine interface defeat of long rod penetrators by a confined ceramic plate. The numerical simulations are compared to experiments in order to identify failure modes. The model parameters were obtained independently by simulating plate and rod impact experiments. The proposed model captures most of the physical observations as well as failure mode transition, from interface defeat to full penetration, with increasing impact velocity. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Multiscale experimental investigation of crystal plasticity and grain boundary sliding in synthetic halite using digital image correlation

Abstract: [1] There is a renewed interest in the study of the rheology of halite since salt cavities are considered for waste repositories or energy storage. This research benefits from the development of observation techniques at the microscale, which allow precise characterizations of microstructures, deformation mechanisms, and strain fields. These techniques are applied to uniaxial compression tests on synthetic halite done with a classical press and with a specific rig implemented in a scanning electron microscope. Digital images of the surface of the sample have been recorded at several loading stages. Surface markers allow the measurement of displacements by means of digital image correlation techniques. Global and local strain fields may then be computed using ad hoc data processing. Analysis of these results provides a measure of strain heterogeneity at various scales, an estimate of the size of the representative volume element, and most importantly an identification of the deformation mechanisms, namely crystal slip plasticity and grain boundary sliding, which are shown to be in a complex local interaction. Indeed, the applied macroscopic loading gives rise locally to complex stress states owing to relative crystallographic orientations, density and orientation of interfaces, and local deformation history. We have quantitatively estimated the relative importance of crystal slip plasticity and grain boundary sliding for different microstructures and evidenced their dependence on grain size. The two mechanisms of deformation and their link to the microstructure should thus be considered when modeling polycrystalline viscoplasticity.