| In this work, an effective hybrid boundary element method (BEM)-based technique recently developed is used to perform the dynamic fracture analysis of thin films. The technique employs a coupling of the symmetric Galerkin BEM (SGBEM) for elastodynamics and an energy-based atomistic theory called quantized fracture mechanics for dynamic fracture analysis of micro to nano scale structures. As the SGBEM formulation is in the frequency domain, the standard fast Fourier transform algorithm needs to be used to convert fracture solutions from the frequency domain to the time domain. The above mentioned hybrid technique is used to investigate the dynamic crack-inclusion interaction in a C/SiC thin film. This analysis suggests that, without considering the discontinuous nature of materials at the nano scale, the dynamic fracture parameters will be overestimated. The study also confirms a mechanism well known as "crack-tip shielding" which has been widely applied to increase the fracture resistance of materials by adding a quantity of inclusions made of stiffer materials. |
