Crack stabilization in a brittle body using stiffeners

The behavior of a crack under uniaxial tension in the presence of reinforcement is studied. The reinforcing members (riveted stiffeners) are modeled by point loads. Only four members nearest to the crack are taken into account. It is shown that stiffeners allow one to arrest a crack and prevent its catastrophic growth. Relations between the geometrical and force characteristics for which the crack is stabilized are obtained. The stabilization mechanism is discussed. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 47, No. 6, pp. 137–143, November–December, 2006.     

Subcritical crack growth in an aging plate with variable elastic modulus

The paper addresses subcritical growth of a crack in a thin isotropic plate made of an aging viscoelastic material with time-dependent elastic modulus. The behavior of the material is described by Arutyunyan’s creep theory. To simulate fracture, a modified Leonov–Panasyuk–Dugdale model and a critical crack opening displacement criterion are used. An equation describing the subcritical growth of the crack is derived assuming that Poisson’s ratio is constant. As an example, the critical loads are determined, and curves of subcritical crack growth are plotted for a specific material. The results are compared with the case of constant elastic modulus     

Study into the kinetics of a crack with a nonsmall fracture process zone in an aging viscoelastic plate

The subcritical growth of a mode I crack with nonsmall end zones in an aging viscoelastic plate under tensile loads applied at infinity is studied assuming that the fracture process zone is of constant length. The equations of incubation, transition, and major crack growth stages are obtained on the basis of the Volterra principle and critical crack opening criterion. The crack subcritical growth of a specific material is studied as an example __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 43, No. 8, pp. 92–101, August 2007.     

Elastic state of a transversely isotropic piezoelectric body with an arbitrarily oriented elliptic crack

The elastic stress state in a piezoelectric body with an arbitrarily oriented elliptic crack under mechanical and electric loads is analyzed. The solution is obtained using triple Fourier transform and the Fourier-transformed Green’s function for an unbounded piezoelastic body. Solving the problem for the case of a crack lying in the isotropy plane, for which there is an exact solution, demonstrates that the approach is highly efficient. The distribution of the stress intensity factors along the front of a crack in a piezoelectric body under uniform mechanical loading is analyzed numerically for different orientations of the crack __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 39–48, February 2008.     

Stress state of a piezoelectric ceramic body with a plane crack under antisymmetric loads

The static equilibrium of an electroelastic transversely isotropic space with a plane crack under antisymmetric mechanical loads is studied. The crack is located in the plane of isotropy. Relationships are established between the stress intensity factors (SIFs) for an infinite piezoceramic body and the SIFs for a purely elastic body with a crack of the same form under the same loads. This makes it possible to find the SIFs for an electroelastic body without the need to solve specific electroelasitc problems. As an example, the SIFs are determined for a piezoelastic body with penny-shaped and elliptic cracks under shear __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 32–42, February 2006.     

Subcritical stable growth of a penny-shaped crack in an aging viscoelastic body with cylindrical anisotropy

The paper studies the subcritical stable growth of a penny-shaped mode I crack in an aging linear viscoelastic body with cylindrical anisotropy under tensile loads applied at infinity. The equations of quasistatic crack growth are derived using the Volterra principle for a modified Dugdale model and the critical crack opening displacement as a failure criterion. The kernel of the operator that describes the viscoelastic crack opening is found using operator-valued continued fractions. As an example, the subcritical stable growth of a crack in a specific material is studied numerically __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 82–92, January 2007.     

Mechanism of Fatigue-Crack Growth under Compressive External Stresses

A specimen with a crack shaped like a thin long defect with parallel edges and a rounded tip of finite radius is considered. When the specimen is subjected to compressive cyclic loads, the stresses in zones adjacent to the crack tip vary according to a sign-variable cycle because of plastic strains occurring at the crack tip. This can cause fatigue-crack growth. Results of numerical simulations and experimental data support the possibility of fatigue-crack growth in the field of compressive external stresses. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 46, No. 6, pp. 108–115, November–December, 2005.     

Analysis of the derivative of the energy functional with respect to the length of a curvilinear crack in an elastic body with a possible crack-edge contact

A homogeneous two-dimensional body with a crack of variable length is considered. At the crack edges, conditions are formulated in the form of inequalities that describe mutual nonpenetration of the edges. The derivative of the elastic-energy functional with respect to the length of the curvilinear crack is analyzed. It is shown that the derivative is independent of the crack path, provided that the curve along which the crack propagates is reasonably smooth. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 48, No. 5, pp. 138–145, September–October, 2007.     

On the stress state of a piezoceramic body with a flat crack under symmetric loads

A static-equilibrium problem is solved for an electroelastic transversely isotropic medium with a flat crack of arbitrary shape located in the plane of isotropy. The medium is subjected to symmetric mechanical and electric loads. A relationship is established between the stress intensity factor (SIF) and electric-displacement intensity factor (EDIF) for an infinite piezoceramic body and the SIF for a purely elastic material with a crack of the same shape. This allows us to find the SIF and EDIF for an electroelastic material directly from the corresponding elastic problem, not solving electroelastic problems. As an example, the SIF and EDIF are determined for an elliptical crack in a piezoceramic body assuming linear behavior of the stresses and the normal electric displacement on the crack surface __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 41, No. 11, pp. 67–77, November 2005.     

Effects of the weak/micro-discontinuity of interface on the fracture behavior of a functionally graded coating with an inclined crack

The mechanical model was established for the anti-plane fracture problem of a functionally graded coating–substrate system with a coating crack inclined to the weak/micro-discontinuous interface. The Cauchy singular integral equation for the crack was derived using Fourier integral transform, and the Lobatto–Chebyshev collocation method put up by Erdogan and Gupta was used to get its numerical solution. Finally, the effects of the weak/micro-discontinuity of the interface on SIFs were analyzed, the “affected regions” corresponding to the two crack tips have been obtained and their engineering significance was discussed. It was indicated that, for the crack tip in the corresponding “affected region”, to reduce the weak-discontinuity of the interface and to make the interface micro-discontinuous are the two effective ways to reduce the SIF, and the latter way always has more remarkable SIF-reduction effect. For the crack tip outside the “affected region”, its SIF is mainly influenced by material stiffness, and to prevent such a tip from growing toward the interface “softer coating and stiffer substrate” is a more advantageous combination than “stiffer coating and softer substrate”.     

Limiting velocity of crack propagation in elastic materials

A crack is represented as a continuous set of linear dislocations. Simple analytical expressions are obtained for the potential and kinetic energies of the environment of moving cracks and the attached mass of cracks for an arbitrary form of the stress applied to the crack P(x). It is shown that the indicated analytical expressions are bilinear integrals of the functions P(x) and ∂P(x)/∂x. These integrals are calculated in explicit form for a constant stress over the entire crack length and the stress due to the action of molecular adhesion forces in a narrow region near the crack openings. It is shown that the calculation results does not depend on the form of molecular adhesion forces. The proposed approach to describing cracks and calculations based on it has made it possible for the first time to obtain a complete analytical expression for the limiting crack propagation velocity in elastic materials as a function of the main mechanical characteristics of such materials. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 50, No. 4, pp. 158–166, July–August, 2009.     

On the Range of Applicability of the Reissner–Mindlin and Kirchhoff–Love Plate Bending Models

We show that the Reissner–Mindlin plate bending model has a wider range of applicability than the Kirchhoff–Love model for the approximation of clamped linearly elastic plates. Under the assumption that the body force density is constant in the transverse direction, the Reissner–Mindlin model solution converges to the three-dimensional linear elasticity solution in the relative energy norm for the full range of surface loads. However, for loads with a significant transverse shear effect, the Kirchhoff–Love model fails. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Determination of mixed-mode stress-intensity factors K I and K II for a subsurface crack near a concentrated force

Two-dimensional photoelastic experiments were conducted to obtain isochromatic fringe fields in the region between a crack tip and a concentrated load on the boundary of a half plane. An analysis method is developed to determine the mixed-mode stress-intensity factors due to two interacting stress singularities. The results obtained showed the dominance of the opening mode in extending a delamination crack by sliding surface loads. Paper was presented at the 1989 SEM Spring Conference on Experimental Mechanics held in Cambridge, MA on May 28–June 1.     

Universal regularities of hydraulic fracturing within the framework of the Perkins-Kern-Nordgren model

An algorithm that permits one to find a solution of the Perkins-Kern-Nordgren problem for standard regimes of hydraulic fracturing is suggested. The universal qualitative specifics, of the behavior of a crack is shown; in particular, the asymptotics of crack opening at the tip is found, and it is shown that the character of the crack is determined by the rate of increase or decrease in the crack size. Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 149–157, May–June, 1998.     

Stress state in the plastic zone on the continuation of an elliptic mode I crack under bi-and tri-axial loading

The spatial stress state in a circular plastic zone near an elliptic crack under bi-and tri-axial asymmetric loading at infinity is studied. It is shown that the plastic constraint factor peaks at the points with maximum external tensile tangential stresses on the crack boundary. The use of a two-parameter failure criterion leads to the conclusion that the limit state can first be reached at the ends of the major axis of the elliptic crack depending on the relation between the external stresses __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 43, No. 11, pp. 24–30, November 2007.     

Eigenvalues of the antiplane-shear crack problem for a power-law material

This paper discusses the problem of finding the eigenvalue spectrum in determining the stress and strain fields at the tip of an antiplane-shear crack in a power-law material. It is shown that the perturbation method provides an analytical dependence of the eigenvalue on the material nonlinearity parameter and the eigenvalue of the linear problem. Thus, it is possible to find the entire spectrum of eigenvalues and not only the eigenvalue of the Hutchinson-Rice-Rosengren problem. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 173–180, January–February, 2008.     

Optimization formulation of the evolutionary problem of crack propagation under quasibrittle fracture

For the evolutionary problem describing crack propagation in a solid with allowance for the irreversible work of plastic deformation due to the crack propagation, a general optimization formulation is proposed and investigated. For the optimum crack, data on the H²-smoothnesses of the displacement field in the solid and, hence, on the finiteness of the stress at the crack tip, are obtained. The solvability of the optimization problem (i.e., the existence of an optimum crack) is proved for a curvilinear crack propagation path specified a priori. For the particular case of a straight path, a generalized criterion of crack growth is proposed. The question of the choice of a crack propagation path is discussed and a comparison with existing fracture criteria is made. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 47, No. 5, pp. 107–118, September–October, 2006.     

Dynamic crack propagation along a weakly bonded plane in a polymer

Dynamic crack propagation speeds along the weakly jointed interfaces of PMMA and Homalite-100 were determined experimentally. These speeds were found to be highly dependent on the bonding strength and on the magnitude of the applied impulsive loads. As applied loads increase, the maximal speed was found to approach asymptotically the Rayleigh wave velocity of the material. Paper was presented at the 1985 SEM Spring Conference on Experimental Mechanics held in Las Vegas, NV on June 9–14.     

Effect of scattering of elastic harmonic waves in the far zone by a spatial crack

A three-dimensional wave field formed owing to diffraction of low-frequency waves on a curved crack in an infinite elastic solid at a large distance from the defect is studied by the method of boundary integral equations. Direction diagrams of the scattered field versus the excentricity of the crack surface and wavenumber are obtained for different directions of incidence of planar longitudinal waves onto a gently sloping spheroidal crack. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 47, No. 4, pp. 115–123, July–August, 2006.     

Fatigue growth modeling of cracks emanating from a circular hole in infinite plate

This paper presents a numerical approach of fatigue growth analysis of cracks emanating from a hole in infinite elastic plate subjected to remote loads. It involves a generation of Bueckner’s principle and a hybrid displacement discontinuity method (a boundary element method) proposed recently by the senior author of the paper. Because of an intrinsic feature of the boundary element method, a general crack growth problem can be solved in a single region formulation. In the numerical simulation, for each increment of crack extension, remeshing of existing boundaries is not necessary. Crack extension is modeled conveniently by adding new boundary elements on the incremental crack extension to the previous crack boundaries. As an example, fatigue growth process of an inclined crack in an infinite plate under uniaxial cycle load is modeled to illustrate the effectiveness of the numerical approach. In addition, fatigue growth of cracks emanating from a circular hole in infinite elastic plate subjected to remote loads is investigated by using the numerical approach. Many numerical results are given