Phase-Field Description of Ductile Fracture in Structural Steel under Cyclic Loading
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 148, Issue 7
Abstract
This paper presents analysis of fracture in structural steel subjected to cyclic loads, which is of paramount importance for evaluating the safety of steel buildings exposed to extreme events such as strong earthquakes. The analysis relies on the phase-field concept to describe the formation and propagation of cracks in a solid body, in conjunction with a large-deformation description of the motion and an elastoplastic constitutive law having nonlinear isotropic and kinematic hardening to account for the material hysteretic response. The evolution of the phase-field is driven by a low-cycle fatigue criterion, aimed to phenomenologically describe the effect of irreversible processes ultimately leading to ductile fracture. The proposed modeling scheme is used in the simulation of experimental tests on circumferentially notched steel coupons tested by the authors, and its capability to capture fracture occurrence, as well as cyclic crack opening and closing, is demonstrated.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Specifically, the input files for the phase-field simulations, output data from the analyses, and data from the experimental tests considered in these analyses, are available upon request.
Acknowledgments
The work presented in this paper was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant CMMI 1463220). Opinions expressed in this paper are these of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the sponsor.
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Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 148 • Issue 7 • July 2022
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: May 28, 2021
Accepted: Jan 7, 2022
Published online: Apr 21, 2022
Published in print: Jul 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Sep 21, 2022
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