fracture toughness

I hope some of you may find this work interesting:

Damage modeling in Small Punch Test specimens

E. Martínez-Pañeda, I.I. Cuesta, I. Peñuelas, A. Díaz, J.M. Alegre

Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics, 86A, pp. 51-60

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167844216301616

A pre-print is available at www.empaneda.com

I hope some of you may find this work interesting.

Fracture toughness characterization through notched small punch test specimens

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921509316300740

(A preprint version is available at www.empaneda.com)

Cracks generate the largest strain gradients that any material can withstand. Flexoelectricity (coupling between strain gradient and polarization) must therefore play an important role in fracture physics. Here we use a self-consistent continuum model to evidence two consequences of flexoelectricity in fracture: the resistance to fracture increases as structural size decreases, and it becomes asymmetric with respect to the sign of polarization. The latter phenomenon manifests itself in a range of intermediate sizes where piezo- and flexoelectricity compete.

The section for Mixed Conductors, Department of Energy Conversion and Storage, Technical University of Denmark, is seeking a candidate for a PhD student position as part of the project “Synfuel: Sustainable synthetic fuels from biomass gasification and electrolysis”.

Composites reinforced by thinner fibers are intensively studied in recent years and expected to have better
mechanical properties. With development of nanotechnology, the diameter of fiber can be as thin as
several nanometers, such as nanofibers and nanotubes. Then, do these thinner fibers definitely result in
composites with better mechanical properties? In this paper, the toughening effect of reinforcing fibers in
composites is investigated based on the three-level failure analysis model. It is found that thinner