Seminar 7th August 2014 2 p.m. Building 85, Room 2207, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton
GPU-Based Simulations of Fracture in Idealized Brick and Mortar Microstructures
Professor Matthew R. Begley
University of California
- Categories
- GPU, NGCM
- Submitter
- Luke Goater
Prof Matthew Begley
This talk will describe simulations of fracture in idealized brick and mortar microstructures comprising extremely stiff bricks bonded together with compliant, ductile mortar. The objective is to guide the development of ‘synthetic nacres’ by providing quantitative connections between brick hierarchy (i.e. size distributions, stacking sequences, etc.), interface behaviors, and macroscopically-defined fracture toughness. The simulations utilize an idealized material description that accounts for brick interactions using a non-linear cohesive law that includes elasticity, perfectly plastic yielding, and rupture.
A novel incremental Monte-Carlo minimization scheme is used to simulate cracking without a priori assumptions regarding crack pathways; the framework is specifically tailored to using graphical processing units (GPUs) to exploit highly parallel computations.
Results will be presented for various brick/interface alignments, size distributions, strength distributions, etc. and used to extract the relationships between these properties and the macroscopic toughness, strength and modulus. The final part of the talk will describe a novel pathway to synthesize materials with ordered microstructures, i.e. the use of acoustic focusing to align anisotropic particles in microfluidic channels. Several novel features of acoustic focusing of spheres, platelets and rods will be illustrated, and discussed in the context of developing microfluidic printheads to deposit ordered microstructures.