Damaged nanocomposites and nanostructures with cracks and discontinuities using local and nonlocal models
Nicholas Fantuzzi, University of Bologna, Italy
Xiao-Wei Gao, Dalian University of Technology, China
Sabrina Vantadori, University of Parma, Italy
Keywords: damaged structures, fracture mechanics, nanomaterials, nanostructures, numerical methods, local and nonlocal models
Nanomaterials and nanotechnologies have been recently spread due to their potential use in different fields of engineering such as civil, mechanical, aerospace, informatics and biomedical. Nanomaterials and nanocomposites are considered for creating nanobeams, nanoplates or nanoshells as well as taken into account as reinforcing phase of macro models that have nonlocal properties due to the presence of tiny particles that interact with the continuum not by following classical rules of continuum mechanics. In both cases, such structures might present defects that change the overall mechanical properties of the solid. Therefore, novel approaches are needed to be introduced to study the effects and the interactions between the nanoscale with the macroscale.
Cracks and discontinuities are well-known factors of perturbation in the stress fields in solids when mechanical loads are applied. The general effect is an increase of the stress field in the vicinity of the crack which is generally over-predicted by classical continuum theories. This drawback is overcome by nonlocal models that are generally able to spread the stress at the tip by a reduction according to the nonlocal properties of the material. Computational methods are generally needed for solving such problems due to the complexity of the models in use and material configurations in practical engineering applications.
The present symposium aims to gather researchers interested in further developing computational mechanics tools and models for the local and nonlocal stress analysis in nanocomposites and nanostructures under several mechanical and multifield loads when cracks and/or discontinuities are present. It is an ambition of the present symposium to receive many contributions in order to stimulate profitable collaboration between materials scientist, technologists and mechanical designers.