GPU-based simulations of fracture in bio-inspired brick & mortar composites

Abstract eng:
This paper examines the effect of microstructure on the macroscopic fracture properties of idealized brick and mortar composites, which consist of ri gid bricks bonded with elastic-plastic mortar that ruptures at finite strain. Specifically, the effect of brick aspect ratio and non-uniform microstructures is studied. A simulation tool that harnesses the parallel processing power of graphics processing units (GPUs) was used to simulate fracture in large virtual specimens, whose microstructures were created by sampling a probability distribution of brick sizes. Quantitative connections between the statistical parameters defining heterogeneous brick distributions and the statistics of initiation toughness are presented. The results offer quantitative insights that can be used to identify microstructural targets for process development, notably specific brick size distributions that still provide macroscopic toughening. Moreover, the simulation approach aids in the development of bio-inspired composites by providing a virtual testing tool to connect microstructure to performance.

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