An improved coupled thermo-mechanic bond-based peridynamic model for cracking behaviors in brittle solids subjected to thermal shocks

An improved coupled thermo-mechanical bond-based peridynamics with multirate time integration scheme is developed to study the thermal shock cracking behaviors in brittle solids. In the proposed numerical method, effects of the relative distance between material points on thermoelastic stiffness of a bond are considered in the deformed configuration. The periodical and hierarchical characteristics of thermal crack patterns of ceramics in quenching tests are accurately predicted in 2-D and 3-D cases. The present numerical results are in good agreement with the previous experimental observations and data. It is shown that the proposed numerical model is simple and efficient to simulate the periodical and hierarchical initiation and propagation of cracks in brittle solids under thermal shocks. The present numerical simulations provide direction observations on the whole processes of crack initiation and propagation, which is a quite difficult problem in the laboratory experiments.