Interplay between structural scales and fracture process zone: experimental and numerical analysis on paper as a model material

This work deals with fracture mechanisms in quasi-brittle materials, focusing on the characterization of the Fracture Process Zone (FPZ) of specimens under tensile load. Particularly, paper was used as model material. Experiments were conducted on notched and unnotched specimens. Based on an image analysis of these observations, a stochastic finite element model was developed, using both a nonlocal stress-based approach and a discretized random field modeling of the Young’s modulus. The proposed methodology allowed characterizing the damage zone and the size of the FPZ, analyzing the influence of the mesostructure, composed of flocs (fiber aggregates where the basis weight is larger than the average one) and antiflocs (complement of flocs). The area of the active FPZ and the normalized stress drop were linked using a surface energy dissipated in the active FPZ. The stress drop, until limiting value, increased with the width of the active FPZ. Finally, a relationship between the surface energy and the nonlocal internal length was established.