Discrete approach to study fracture energy absorption under dynamic loading S.G. Psakhie * , A.Yu. Smolin, E.M. Tatarintsev Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science, SB Russian Academy of Science, pr. Akademicheskii 2/1, 634021 Tomsk, Russia Abstract Behavior and peculiarities of failure of frame structures under dynamic loading are studied on the basis of computer modeling. The advantages of the Movable Cellular Automata (MCA) method allow to study all stages of the fracture process from damages generation to the complete failure. A possibility of the eect of elastic energy accumulation in complex structures is shown. Ó 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 02.70.-c; 02.70.Ns; 62.20.)x; 62.20.Dc; 62.20.Fe Keywords: Fracture; Dynamic loading; Crash test; Crash energy management 1. Introduction One of the main problems of the car industry is the increasing of the structure's viability under dynamic loading. In general, a way to solve this problem is the management of transformation of the collision energy to the energy of destruction of the least important parts and details of the struc- ture. It is to be noted that similar problem also exists in materials science, since a majority of modern materials are heterogeneous and have a complex internal structure. To optimize this structure for working under dynamic loading it is necessary to take into account the redistribution of elastic energy (for instance, connected with phase transition, generation and accumulation of micro- damages, etc.) and its in¯uence on changing strength of material under loading [1±4]. As far as real collision experiments of the complex objects are suciently expensive and getting of detailed information is often associates with certain di- culties, the methods of computer aided study are used as one of the tools to solve the crash energy management problem. As a rule, the continuum mechanics methods are used. Although essential achievements have been obtained on the basis of these methods, the continuum approach has sev- eral restrictions, connected ®rst of all with the possibility of damages generation description, as well as formation and development of cracks. Such type of problems may be solved on the basis of the Movable Cellular Automata (MCA) method, which has been successfully used for modeling fracture of the dierent types of materials and structures [4±8]. The problem of ``injected'' elastic energy man- agement under dynamic loading of frame struc- tures was considered in this paper. This problem www.elsevier.com/locate/commatsci Computational Materials Science 19 (2000) 179±182 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +7-382-2-258881; fax: +7-382-2- 259576. E-mail address: sp@ispms.tsc.ru (S.G. Psakhie). 0927-0256/00/$ - see front matter Ó 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 9 2 7 - 0 2 5 6 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 1 5 3 - 1