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Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering / Volume 23 / Issue 12 / TECHNICAL PAPERS

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Investigation of Fracture Behavior of Heterogeneous Infrastructure Materials with Extended-Finite-Element Method and Image Analysis

J. Mater. Civ. Eng. 23, 1662 (2011); http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)MT.1943-5533.0000337 (10 pages)

Kenny Ng1 and Qingli Dai, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE2

1Graduate Research Assistant, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI 49931. E-mail: keng@mtu.edu
2Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI 49931 (corresponding author). E-mail: qingdai@mtu.edu

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(Submitted 17 September 2010; accepted 19 May 2011; posted ahead of print 21 May 2011)

Infrastructure materials are essential components of the nation’s infrastructure and transportation systems. Deteriorating infrastructures require the development of computational tools to predict fracture behavior. The extended-finite-element method (XFEM) has been recently developed to eliminate remesh efforts by allowing crack propagation within continuous elements. The object of this study is to employ XFEM and image analysis techniques to numerically investigate fracture behavior within infrastructure materials. The XFEM was addressed with a discontinuous crack and inclusion enrichment function with the level-set method. The crack growth and stress intensity factors were also formulated. An extended-finite-element fracture model (XFE-FM) was developed with the MATLAB program for predicting fracture behavior with single-edge-notched beam (SEB) and split tensile (ST) tests. The developed XFE-FM was first validated with SEB testing on a homogeneous sample. In order to capture the real material microstructure, the digital samples of asphalt concrete and concrete specimens were generated with imaging processing and ellipse-fitting techniques. The predicted crack propagation with XFE-FM simulation on digital samples was compared with the fracture pattern of lab-tested specimens. The comparison results on open-mode middle-notched and mixed-mode offset-notched SEB and ST tests indicate that the developed XFE-FM has the ability to accurately predict fracture behavior within heterogeneous infrastructure materials.

© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers

Acknowledgments

The support of this research by the National Science Foundation under grants 0900015, 0900582, and 0701264 is gratefully appreciated.

Article Outline

  1. Introduction
  2. Objectives and Scope
  3. XFE-FM
    1. Crack Enrichment
    2. Inclusion Enrichment
    3. Crack Growth and SIFs
  4. Model Validation with SEB Test
    1. Verification of XFE-FM Simulation
  5. Digital Sample Generation from Imaging Analysis
  6. Comparison of Crack Propagation from XFE-FM Simulation and Fracture Pattern of Tested Specimens
    1. SEB Tests with Asphalt Concrete and Concrete Specimens
    2. XFE-FM Simulation of Open-Mode Middle-Notched SEB Test
    3. XFE-FM Simulation of Mixed-Mode Offset-Notched SEB Test
    4. ST Test with Asphalt Concrete Specimen
    5. XFE-FM Simulation of ST Test
  7. Conclusions

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ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)MT.1943-5533.0000337

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0899-1561 (print)  
1943-5533 (online)

Publisher

American Society of Civil Engineers

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