FatiguEvoPro · Quasistatic evolution problems for material failure due to fatigue
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-12-01 → 2021-11-30
- EU contribution
- €159,461
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
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Results in brief
Quasistatic evolution problems for material failure due to fatigue
In Materials Science, fatigue is the process by which a solid exhibits a loss of its elastic properties as a consequence of repeated cycles of loading and unloading. Such failure phenomena occur because microscopic defects appear where the strain oscillates during the evolution, resulting in a considerable macroscopic weakening of the material and, in drastic cases, in rupture. Fatigue is responsible for most of unforeseen mechanical failures. These affect people and society at all levels, encompassing all possible structures: everyday-life items, human body prostheses, buildings, bridges, ground vehicles, ships, aeroplanes, oil platforms, etc. In most dramatic situations, the consequences of fatigue failure can be catastrophic, causing tremendous financial losses, serious injuries, and deaths. Investigating fatigue phenomena is a crucial aspect in the Engineering community, however so far scarcely investigated by the Mathematics community. This results in the lack of proofs of consistency and well-posedness for variational models of material fatigue. The overall aim of the project has been to prove the existence of evolutions for mechanical models of material fatigue. This has been pursued by examining fatigue in the different contexts of damage, plasticity, and cohesive fracture.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
This research project deals with evolutionary problems arising in the modelling of material failure caused by fatigue. In Materials Science, fatigue is the process by which a solid exhibits a loss of its elastic properties as a consequence of repeated cycles of loading and unloading, and it is responsible for the majority of unforeseen structural failures. Infamous accidents have shown how the consequences of fatigue can be catastrophic, causing tremendous financial losses, serious injuries, and deaths.In contrast to the active Engineering research on the topic, fatigue phenomena have been so far scarcely investigated by mathematicians. Since Mathematical Analysis has played a crucial role for the proof of consistency of variational models in Fracture Mechanics, it is clear that this field would benefit from a cogent and cutting-edge mathematical theory of fatigue.The aim of FatiguEvoPro is to prove the existence of evolutions for mechanical models of material fatigue. The existence of quasistatic evolutions for Rate-Independent Systems featuring fatigue will be investigated within damage, brittle fracture, and cohesive fracture.The models of FatiguEvoPro describe the current state of the mechanical system in terms of a memory variable which takes into account the whole history of its evolution. The resulting weak control of this variable is the main source of difficulty in the proof of existence of evolutions. The new effective techniques developed to solve this problem have great potential for applications in different contexts.The achievements of FatiguEvoPro will develop a new branch of the variational modelling of Fracture Mechanics and will strengthen the mutual interest between mathematicians and engineers on a topic of utmost importance. The planned training activities will improve the applicant's skills in networking, teaching, communication, and project management, establishing his position as a leading young researcher in the field.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN · MuenchenCoordinatorGermany
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union