A Critical Review of the Differential Diagnosis of Root Fracture Line in CBCT scans

The objective of this critical review of literature is to discuss relevant clinical factors associated with root fractures (RF) visualized by using a new CBCT software. RF constitutes a common occurrence and a challenge in clinical practice, in which the diagnosis becomes essential for the definition of rapid and precise decision-making. The characterization of RF may involve different aspects, such as orientation of the fracture line (horizontal, vertical, oblique), root position of the fracture (cervical, middle, apical third), fracture's coronal-radicular position (coronary, coronal-radicular, radicular), continuity of the fracture (crack, incomplete fracture, complete), bone extension of the fracture (supraosseous, bone level, infraosseous fracture). Imaging examinations have been routinely used to aid in the RF diagnosis. Even with high-resolution cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans, many doubts often remain about the diagnostic outcome. Many interferences in the analysis of image quality to determine the diagnosis are identified, such as the sharpness, the noise, light and dark artifacts, among others. The professional's knowledge is essential for identifying the different patterns of fracture lines and their repercussions on adjacent bone tissues, as well as for the analysis of artifacts that may hide or show similarities to fracture lines. Fractures lines and root fractures that may be associated with phantom conditions that mimic fractures should be carefully analyzed. CBCT is the exam indicated to identify a root fracture. It is also added to the success of the diagnosis that the professional has scientific knowledge, training and mastery of advanced CBCT software.

An assessment of phase field fracture: crack initiation and growth

The phase field paradigm, in combination with a suitable variational structure, has opened a path for using Griffith’s energy balance to predict the fracture of solids. These so-called phase field fracture methods have gained significant popularity over the past decade, and are now part of commercial finite element packages and engineering fitness- for-service assessments. Crack paths can be predicted, in arbitrary geometries and dimensions, based on a global energy minimization—without the need for ad hoc criteria. In this work, we review the fundamentals of phase field fracture methods and examine their capabilities in delivering predictions in agreement with the classical fracture mechanics theory pioneered by Griffith. The two most widely used phase field fracture models are implemented in the context of the finite element method, and several paradigmatic boundary value problems are addressed to gain insight into their predictive abilities across all cracking stages; both the initiation of growth and stable crack propagation are investigated. In addition, we examine the effectiveness of phase field models with an internal material length scale in capturing size effects and the transition flaw size concept. Our results show that phase field fracture methods satisfactorily approximate classical fracture mechanics predictions and can also reconcile stress and toughness criteria for fracture. The accuracy of the approximation is however dependent on modelling and constitutive choices; we provide a rationale for these differences and identify suitable approaches for delivering phase field fracture predictions that are in good agreement with well-established fracture mechanics paradigms. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘A cracking approach to inventing new tough materials: fracture stranger than friction’.

Energy Dissipation and Damage Evolution Characteristics of Salt Rock under Uniaxial Cyclic Loading and Unloading Tension

Salt rock has been regarded as the optimal surrounding rock for underground gas storage (UGS), and it is occasionally subjected to cyclic tension because of the gas injection and production of salt cavern, which leads to the change in mechanical properties of salt rock. In this paper, a laboratory study is conducted to investigate the energy dissipation and damage evolution characteristics of salt rock under uniaxial cyclic tension monitored by acoustic emission (AE) machine. Compared to monotonic tension, both tensile strength and deformation capacity of salt rock are enhanced under cyclic tension. The fracture crack is approximately a single linear crack with large elliptical plastic deformation zone, which is consistent with the spatial distribution of AE events. In yield stage, the proportion of dissipative energy increases first but decreases subsequently. The relationship between AE energy-based damage variable and displacement is established. It is concluded that the damage variable is a piecewise power correlation with displacement while the growth rate of damage variable increases in the pre-peak stage but decreases in post-peak stage.

Crack and Fracture central line delineation on Steger and Hydrodynamics with improved Fractional differential

The complex rock fracture and road pavement cracks are more difficult to extract than the other linear objects in an image. In rock engineering, the rock fracture is an important factor that might cause tunnel and bridge collapse, or rock slope or dam damage. In road construction, the crack is one of the main pavement diseases. To avoid the difficultly of extracting fractures/cracks in an image, a new algorithm for tracking the central lines of fractures or cracks is studied to alleviate the problem for image segmentation. It includes four aspects: (1) a new fractional differential template is established to enhance the blurring and weak fractures/cracks in an image, compared with the traditional fractional differential template Tiansi, the new template has no zero coefficient and can enhance the micro-fractures/cracks; (2) in order to decrease the difficulty level of fracture/crack extraction, an algorithm for extracting the feature points of the fracture/crack central line is proposed based on the idea of Steger algorithm; (3) after linking short gaps based on distance, the long gap linking is made according to the principle of hydrodynamics, it first makes judgment if the two neighboring feature points are in one crack or not, in which, the feature points are regarded as two spring resources, then in light on the idea of water gushed out of the spring, when the two water flows meet together, the two points are recognized in one crack, otherwise they are not in one crack and cannot be connected together and (4) if the two neighboring feature points are in one crack, then the distance and the curvature between the two line segments are calculated, if they are less than the given thresholds, the linking path is searched and the gap is filled. Compared with the four traditional algorithms by testing hundred images, the new algorithm can accurately and quickly extract the central lines in complex rock fracture and rough road pavement cracks, which can increase the accuracy of crack/fracture image segmentation compared to the other algorithms.

Comparison of peridynamic and phase-field models for dynamic brittle fracture in glassy materials

We report computational results obtained with three different models for dynamic brittle fracture. The results are compared against recent experimental tests on dynamic fracture/crack branching in glass induced by impact. Two peridynamic models (one using the meshfree discretization, the other being the LS-DYNA’s discontinuous-Galerkin implementation) and a phase-field model lead to interesting and important differences in terms of reproducing the experimentally observed fracture behavior and crack paths. We monitor the crack branching location, the angle of crack branching, the crack propagation speed, and some particular features seen in the experimental crack paths: small twists/kinks near the far edge of the sample. We discuss the models’ performance and provide possible reasons behind the failure of some of the models to correctly predict the observed behavior.