<p>This dissertation studies the chemo-hygro-mechanical coupling involved in the process of crack propagation encountered both in natural and engineered context. Chemical processes are likely to affect the mechanical properties of geo-materials, resulting in possible weakening effect. The deformation and micro-cracking induced by material weakening in turn enhances the overall mass removal. In this study, several models within both elasticity and plasticity domain are developed for a better understanding of the enhanced crack propagation. A deformational plasticity model based on experimental observations is addressed. Rigid-plasticity models are applied to various boundary conditions. In the chemo-elasticity model, chemical dissolution is assumed to be a function of a comprehensive strain invariant. One-way coupling and two-way coupling models are discussed. In the two-way coupling model, volumetric strain coupling and deviatoric strain coupling are compared. A variety of loading modes are adopted to investigate the chemical enhancement of propagation of a single crack. The behavior of the material is either rigid-plastic, or elastic with the variable of mass removal enters the constitutive equation as a chemical strain. Comparison between the results from two models is presented and discussed.</p> / Dissertation
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DUKE/oai:dukespace.lib.duke.edu:10161/9967 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Hu, Manman |
| Contributors | Hueckel, Tomasz |
| Source Sets | Duke University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
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