Observations of transient high temperature vortical microstructures in solids during adiabatic shear banding

By using a unique infrared high-speed camera especially constructed for recording highly transient temperature fields at the microscale, we are able to reveal the spatial and temporal microstructure within dynamically growing shear bands in metals. It is found that this structure is highly nonuniform and possesses a transient, short range periodicity in the direction of shear band growth in the form of an array of intense "hot spots" reminiscent of the well-known, shear-induced hydrodynamic instabilities in fluids. This is contrary to the prevailing classical view that describes the deformations and the temperatures within shear bands as being essentially one-dimensional fields. These observations are also reminiscent of the nonuniform structure of localized shear regions believed to exist, at an entirely different length scale, in the earth's lower crust and upper mantle

Coherent gradient sensing method and system for measuring surface curvature

A system and method for determining a curvature of a specularly reflective surface based on optical interference. Two optical gratings are used to produce a spatial displacement in an interference field of two different diffraction components produced by one grating from different diffraction components produced by another grating. Thus, the curvature of the surface can be determined

Continuum Surface Energy from a Lattice Model

We investigate connections between the continuum and atomistic descriptions of deformable crystals, using certain interesting results from number theory. The energy of a deformed crystal is calculated in the context of a lattice model with general binary interactions in two dimensions. A new bond counting approach is used, which reduces the problem to the lattice point problem of number theory. The main contribution is an explicit formula for the surface energy density as a function of the deformation gradient and boundary normal. The result is valid for a large class of domains, including faceted (polygonal) shapes and regions with piecewise smooth boundaries.Comment: V. 1: 10 pages, no fig's. V 2: 23 pages, no figures. Misprints corrected. Section 3 added, (new results). Intro expanded, refs added.V 3: 26 pages. Abstract changed. Section 2 split into 2. Section (4) added material. V 4, 28 pages, Intro rewritten. Changes in Sec.5 (presentation only). Refs added.V 5,intro changed V.6 address reviewer's comment

Phase field modeling of nonlinear material behavior

Materials that undergo internal transformations are usually described in solid mechanics by multi-well energy functions that account for both elastic and transformational behavior. In order to separate the two effects, physicists use instead phase-field-type theories where conventional linear elastic strain is quadratically coupled to an additional field that describes the evolution of the reference state and solely accounts for nonlinearity. In this paper we propose a systematic method allowing one to split the non-convex energy into harmonic and nonharmonic parts and to convert a nonconvex mechanical problem into a partially linearized phase-field problem. The main ideas are illustrated using the simplest framework of the Peierls-Nabarro dislocation model.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. v1: as submitted. v2: as published (conclusion added, unessential part of appendix removed, minor typesetting revisions). To appear in: K. Hackl (ed.), Proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium on Variational Concepts with Applications to the Mechanics of Materials, September 22-26, 2008, Bochum. (Springer-Verlag, 2010 presumably

Thermomechanical couplings in shape memory alloy materials

In this work we address several theoretical and computational issues which are related to the thermomechanical modeling of shape memory alloy materials. More specifically, in this paper we revisit a non-isothermal version of the theory of large deformation generalized plasticity which is suitable for describing the multiple and complex mechanisms occurring in these materials during phase transformations. We also discuss the computational implementation of a generalized plasticity based constitutive model and we demonstrate the ability of the theory in simulating the basic patterns of the experimentally observed behavior by a set of representative numerical examples

Mathematical models of supersonic and intersonic crack propagation in linear elastodynamics

This paper presents mathematical models of supersonic and intersonic crack propagation exhibiting Mach type of shock wave patterns that closely resemble the growing body of experimental and computational evidence reported in recent years. The models are developed in the form of weak discontinuous solutions of the equations of motion for isotropic linear elasticity in two dimensions. Instead of the classical second order elastodynamics equations in terms of the displacement field, equivalent first order equations in terms of the evolution of velocity and displacement gradient fields are used together with their associated jump conditions across solution discontinuities. The paper postulates supersonic and intersonic steady-state crack propagation solutions consisting of regions of constant deformation and velocity separated by pressure and shear shock waves converging at the crack tip and obtains the necessary requirements for their existence. It shows that such mathematical solutions exist for significant ranges of material properties both in plane stress and plane strain. Both mode I and mode II fracture configurations are considered. In line with the linear elasticity theory used, the solutions obtained satisfy exact energy conservation, which implies that strain energy in the unfractured material is converted in its entirety into kinetic energy as the crack propagates. This neglects dissipation phenomena both in the material and in the creation of the new crack surface. This leads to the conclusion that fast crack propagation beyond the classical limit of the Rayleigh wave speed is a phenomenon dominated by the transfer of strain energy into kinetic energy rather than by the transfer into surface energy, which is the basis of Griffiths theory

A Thermodynamic Internal Variable Model for the Partition of Plastic Work into Heat and Stored Energy in Metals

The energy balance equation for elastoplastic solids includes heat source terms that govern the conversion of some of the plastic work into heat. The remainder contributes to the stored energy of cold work due to the creation of crystal defects. This paper is concerned with the fraction β of the rate of plastic work converted into heating. We examine the status of the common assumption that β is a constant with regard to the thermodynamic foundations of thermoplasticity and experiments. A general internal-variable theory is introduced and restricted to abide by the second law of thermodynamics. Experimentally motivated assumptions reduce this theory to a special model of classical thermoplasticity. The only part of the internal energy not determined from the isothermal response is the stored energy of cold work, a function only of the internal variables. We show that this function can be inferred from stress and temperature data from a single adiabatic straining experiment. Experimental data from dynamic Kolsky-bar tests at various strain rates yield a unique stored energy function. Its knowledge is crucial for the determination of the thermomechanical response in non-isothermal processes. Such a prediction agrees well with results from dynamic tests at different rates. In these experiments, β is found to depend strongly on both strain and strain rate for various engineering materials. The model is successful in predicting this dependence. Requiring β to be constant is thus an approximation of dubious validity