Peridynamic study of the strength and failure of cemented cellular materials

In this paper, a bond-based peridynamic approach is used to simulate the rupture of cellular materials, such as plant tissues, considered as aggregates of cells bound together by a cohesive matrix. The main objective is to clarify how mechanical properties and fracture are affected by the toughness ratio between cell walls and matrix. Cell microstructures are generated using an approach combining the discrete element method to define a spatial distribution of sites (particle centers) and a Voronoi-Laguerre tessellation built on these sites to generate the cell topology. A parametric study is then carried out by varying the toughness ratio β by a factor of five, with ten repetitions per β value. The modulus of elasticity evolves as a power-law function of β. Stress distributions and maps show that stress concentrations are strongly influenced by pore distribution and only weakly by β. An important point was to highlight the dependence of fracture regimes on the β parameter, with a value of β≃3 separating a regime where the fracture passes through the walls and a regime where it bypasses the cells and remains confined within the cohesive matrix, as has been observed in the literature.