Journals

Engineering stress-strain curves are generated from tensile tests on semi-crystalline thermoplastics, which may exhibit non-linearity and/or peak stress associated with striction/necking phenomenon of the specimen at the macroscopic scale. This work addresses this state of deformed specimen, on an isotactic polypropylene, where irreversible strains have led to a variable cross-sectional area along the necked region. 3D images in this region, obtained through Synchrotron Radiation Computed Tomography with two high resolutions are exploited. The best resolution (1 pixel length = 0.05 μm) allowed better understanding of the morphology of several deformed spherulites within which polar fan arrangements are clearly detailed. Thanks to the dentification of the boundaries of spherulite patterns, with a 0.7 μm resolution, the longitudinal and transverse elongations of larger numbers of spherulites are measured. The evolution of the volumetric plastic strains due to cavitation at the spherulitic scale along the necked regions is comprehensively analysed. Volume changes at this scale are highlighted, consisting of an increase in the case of void growth followed by a decrease at large strains due to the collapse of elongated voids. The effects of these results on the establishment of reliable constitutive model are discussed. It is found that accounting for plastic dilation is necessary for the accuracy of constitutive models.

Laiarinandrasana, Lucien

In fracture mechanics, the mesh sensitivity is a key issue. It is particularly true concerning cohesive volumetric finite element methods in which the crack path and the overall behavior are respectively influenced by the mesh topology and the mesh density. Poisson-Delaunay tessellations parameters, including the edge length distributions, were widely studied in the literature but very few works concern the mesh density and topology in Delaunay type meshes suitable for finite element simulations, which is of crucial interest for practical use. Starting from previous results concerning Poisson-Delaunay tessellations and studying in detail the Lloyd relaxation algorithm, we propose estimates for the probability density functions of the edge length and triangle top angles sets. These estimates depend both on the intensity of the underlying point process and on an efficiency index associated to the global quality of the mesh. The global and local accuracies of these estimates are checked for various standard mesh generators. Finally the mesh density and geodesic tortuosity are estimated for standard random or structured triangular meshes typically used in finite element simulations. These results provide practical formulas to estimate bias introduced by the mesh density and topology on the results of cohesive-volumetric finite element simulations.

Lhonneur, Joffrey