Fracture Mechanics as Applied to Bi-Material Interfaces

Studies on crack propagation at the interface of dissimilar materials have been carried
out. This is done in order to

 determine the fracture properties such as fracture toughness and fracture energy
of concrete-concrete cold jointed interface.
 develop analytical tools using the contour integration and weight function
methods for evaluating the mode I and mode II stress intensity factors.
 assess the shear friction factor of safety of gravity dams at the interface of
concrete superstructure and rock foundation.
 evaluate the strength of concrete-concrete cold lift joints in large structures
such as dams, nuclear containment vessels etc.,
 study the effect of heat of hydration in mass concrete structures on cracking
phenomenon
 study the delamination process in different bi-material systems and composites
Damage Detection and Residual Life Assessment of Structures

A method for damage detection and assessment is developed using the concepts of
inverse method and fracture mechanics The objectives are to detect, locate and
quantify any damage that has occurred within a beam during its service using
displacement measurements taken at some arbitrary points along it.

Studies on residual life assessment of plain and reinforced concrete members are done
using fatigue and fracture mechanics conceptS. This includes the study of fatigue
crack growth as a function of time, and the effects of crack propagation on structural
strength. The residual life is determined in terms of the number of applied load cycles
the beam can withstand before reaching the critical crack length.

The fatigue life of concrete is estimated using a method that correlates between
fracture mechanics and damage mechanics. Two models, one based on the
conventional strength of materials approach and the other based on global energy
equivalence are proposed for correlating the fracture based on discrete crack and
damage based on effective elastic moduli for concrete under fatigue loading. The
objective is to relate discrete crack length obtained using fracture mechanics theory to
the isotropic scalar damage parameter of damage mechanics and vice versa.

 Fracture Behavior of Cracked Beam-Columns

The fracture behavior of cracked beam-columns with different eccentricities and

subjected to axial and lateral loads is studied using a cracked beam-column element.
Failure Analysis of Laminated Composite Structures

In this work, a fracture mechanics based finite element technique is being developed
to assess the damage in composite hardware such as rocket motor case and pressure
bottles that has undergone pressure cycles in order to estimate their residual life and
assess their potential for reuse.

Fracture Mechanics of Concrete 

1.     Shear deformation beam theories on the fracture toughness of composites has been
studied. It is observed that higher than 2nd order term in the contribution by shear
deformation would significantly influence the results and those results are in better
agreement with the experimental ones. Different types of specimens have been
modeled and results obtained. A Ph.D. thesis resulted out of the above
investigation.

2.      Influence of crack in a node of a space frame on its compliance has also been
modeled and it is observed that plasticity contained in the material of the node
contributes significantly in the delay of crack propagation. It is found that there is
enough ductility in the nodes used in practice. A chapter in a thesis on the joint
compliance on the behaviour of space structures contains the influence of crack.

3.      Fractal and lattice models for uniaxial tensile behaviour of concrete as a

heterogeneous and quasi-brittle material have been successfully done. Fictitious
crack model has been successfully tried to obtain the cohesiveness of crack.

4.   Ductility of beam column joint under slow cycle loading has been experimentally
determined.

5.      Fracture toughness of high strength concrete has also been obtained

experimentally. It was also a part of the BRNS Project for DAE. It also resulted in
a Ph.D. thesis.
Fracture Mechanics and its applications in safety assessment of dams

For   over   five thousand years,  as  evidenced  in  the  cradles  of civilization, dams have played
a vital role in regulating water flows to cater  to  the  needs  of irrigation. More recently, dams
have also been extensively  used  for  the production of electricity using hydro power. Dams 
require  huge capital outlay to serve various needs which warrants application   of  sound  design 
principles  besides  good  construction practices.  Any  failure  of  dam leads to considerable loss
of life and property. Thus the safety of dams is of paramount importance to mankind. Dam safety
programs are of utmost importance to the society which call for  combined  use  of  multi-
disciplinary  efforts. The concept of safety should  apply  not  only  to  the  pre-planning  stages 
of  design  and construction  but  also  to the post operational and maintenance stages. Due  to 
this, the recent years have witnessed a major research interest from the academic community of
fracture mechanics of concrete and a high concern  from  the  engineering  community  and 
power utility companies owning  dams,  in  issues related dam  safety. 

 From  recent  researches, it  is  well  understood that the concepts of fracture mechanics could be
usefully applied for the failure analysis of concrete  dams.  In  a  concrete  dam,  the  interface 
between concrete superstructure  and  rock  foundation  is  one of the potential sites of crack 
formation  and subsequent failure. Not only do they contribute in weakening the mechanical
strength, but they also constitute conduits for water  to  seep  through  and exert uplift pressure.
Nevertheless, their response to seismic excitation is not well understood and it is commonly
accepted that those constitute the weakest link in the safety of a dam during  and  after  an 
earthquake.  Hence, it is important that proper mechanical behavior of this  interface  is
understood in the light of realistic  loading  conditions.

 As a step towards understanding an interface crack lying in between concrete superstructure and
rock foundation in dams, a finite element program INFAME (Interface Fracture Mechanics)
incorporating contour integral method based on the reciprocal work theorem, catering the effects
of body forces and surface tractions has been developed to compute the bi-material stress
intensity factors on a linear elastic fracture mechanics dominance. Discrete crack approach is
used to simulate cracks typically encountered in dams.

 Stress intensity factor forms a major parameter in linear elastic fracture mechanics, in
terms of which, the fracture criteria for structures can be formulated. Hence,
considerable effort is put in the computation of stress intensity factors using
computationally simple and efficient methods. A method is formulated to obtain the
mode I and mode II stress intensity factors for a crack lying between an interface of
dissimilar materials using Weight Functions. The Weight Function method gives a
boundary integral representation for the stress intensity factors. Since the weight
functions are universal functions for a body specified by a particular crack, material
combination and boundary conditions, once determined, the same weight functions
can be used for determining stress intensity factors for any loading using the integral
representation. This reduces the computational effort, which otherwise has to be put in
analyzing each time for a newly applied load. This is an important feature of the
method and advantageous when the stress intensity factors are required to be
determined for a number of unforeseen loads on the body.

 An interface crack may propagate along the interface or kink into the adjoining material or may
branch out, depending on the stress field at the crack tip. This phenomenon of crack propagation,
kinking and branching are studied, stress and energy based criteria are proposed. Closed form
solutions for determining the angle of crack kinking are developed.

 In real life situation, because of the combined compression and shear loading at the interface
between concrete and rock in dams,  the crack faces come in contact so that sizeable contact zone
emerge near the crack tip. Frictional contact of the crack surfaces cannot be neglected if the
contact zones are finite. The frictional contact alters the stress singularity to become either
weaker or stronger than the inverse square root stress singularity as observed in homogeneous
crack problems. Consequently, the strain energy release rate as conventionally defined, either
vanishes or becomes unbounded and thus cannot be used as a fracture parameter. An attempt has
been made to include the effect of friction associated with the sliding of crack surfaces and
compute the energy dissipated during crack propagation. Finite element analysis has been
performed on an existing dam, to highlight the effect of friction on the nature of crack
propagation along the rock-concrete interface.  Some of the main conclusions of this study are:

 In the absence of friction, the total energy release rate remains constant as long as the
crack lies within the interface. 
 The total energy release rate increases with the crack length for a frictionless case and
decreases with the crack length for the frictional case. The frictional energy dissipation
contributes to the decrease in the total energy. As the value of friction reduces the total
energy release rate decreases considerably. Thus, friction reduces the energy release rate
for increasing crack length. This is not applicable for large water elevations since the
crack has a tendency to open and the friction plays no role for an open crack.

In most literature pertaining to bi-material crack propagation, the effect of varying moduli
ration�s (E1/E2), has been addressed but the combined effect of E1/E2 and n1/n2 (ni is the
Poisson's ration of material i) on the crack propagation scenario was unknown. A parametric
study has been carried out to understand the effects of different parameter like the moduli
ratio�s (E1/E2), Poisson's ratios (n1/n2) and the load angles on the stress intensity factor�s and
the crack kinking angles. Some of the main conclusions from this study are:

 The difference in Poisson's ratio renders the material on either side of the interface as
dissimilar even when their modulus of elasticity is the same. Thus, mixed mode
conditions exists at the crack tip for materials having E1/E2 equal to one and different
Poisson's ratio even for pure mode I loading. As difference in the Poisson's ratio increases
the mode II stress intensity factor increases.
 The effect of difference in Poisson's ratio between the two material on the stress intensity
factors are negligible for all E1/E2 ratios for the case of pure mode II loading.
 The absolute value of crack kinking angle increases as the shear load component
increases, indicating that the presence of shear makes the crack to kink rather than to
propagate in a self similar manner.
The response of an interface to seismic excitation is another area that constitute a weak link in
the safety of dams during and after an earthquake. One of the major concerns in the seismic
behavior of interfaces and joints is the mechanism of opening and closing without impact,
although some localized impact may occur following joint separation. An attempt is made to
solve this problem by developing a numerical model within the framework of finite element
method using the fictitious force concept and special interface element.

Fracture Mechanics of Brick and Brick Masonry

Fracture toughness of brick masonry was obtained for the first time and it looks encouraging.
Brick being relatively more brittle than mortar and brick masonry being more brittle than
concrete, fracture mechanics of brick and brick masonry should be more relevant. It is hoped that
it would start a new school of thought.