Near tip field for pseudo Mode II crack growth: Power law hardening material

The asymptotic behavior of stress and strain near the tip of a Mode II crack growing in power law hardening material is analyzed by assuming that the crack grows straight ahead even though tests show otherwise. The results show that the stress and strain possess the singularities of (ln r)^2/(n−1) and (ln r)^2n/(n−1) respectively. The distance from the crack tip is r, and n is the hardening exponent, i.e. σⁿ. The amplitudes of the stress and strain near the crack tip are determined by the asymptotic analysis.     

Pseudo plane stress mode II crack growth in plastic materials

The near tip field of mode II crack that grows in thin bodies with power hardening or perfectly plastic behavior is analyzed. It is shown that for power hardening behavior, the pseudo plane stress field possesses the logarithm singularity, i.e. σ (ln r)²/(n−1), (ln r)^{2n/(n − 1)}, where r is the distance from the crack tip, n the hardening exponent is σⁿ. When n → ∞ the solution reduced to that for the perfectly plastic case.     

Singular fields of a mode III interface crack in a power-law hardening bimaterial

A high order of asymptotic solution of the singular fields near the tip of a mode III interface crack for pure power-law hardening bimaterials is obtained by using the hodograph transformation. It is found that the zero order of the asymptotic solution corresponds to the assumption of a rigid substrate at the interface, and the first order of it is deduced in order to satisfy completely two continuity conditions of the stress and displacement across the interface in the asymptotic sense. The singularities of stress and strain of the zeroth order asymptotic solutions are −1/(n ₁+1) and −n/(n ₁+1) respectively. (n=n ₁,n ₂ is the hardening exponent of the bimaterials.) The applicability conditions of the asymptotic solutions are determined for both zeroth and first orders. It is proved that the Guo-Keer solution^[10] is limited in some conditions. The angular functions of the singular fields for this interface crack problem are first expressed by closed form. The project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China     

Effect of material nonhomogeneities on the HRR dominance

This work studies the asymptotic stress and displacement fields near the tip of a stationary crack in an elastic–plastic nonhomogeneous material with the emphasis on the effect of material nonhomogeneities on the dominance of the crack tip field. While the HRR singular field still prevails near the crack tip if the material properties are continuous and piecewise continuously differentiable, a simple asymptotic analysis shows that the size of the HRR dominance zone decreases with increasing magnitude of material property gradients. The HRR field dominates at points that satisfy |α⁻¹ ∂α/∂x_δ|1/r, |α⁻¹ ∂²α/(∂x_δ ∂x_γ)|1/r², |n⁻¹ ∂n/∂x_δ|1/[r|ln(r/A)|] and |n⁻¹ ∂²n/(∂x_δ ∂x_γ)|1/[r²|ln(r/A)|], in addition to other general requirements for asymptotic solutions, where α is a material property in the Ramberg–Osgood model, n is the strain hardening exponent, r is the distance from the crack tip, x_δ are Cartesian coordinates, and A is a length parameter. For linear hardening materials, the crack tip field dominates at points that satisfy |E_tan⁻¹ ∂E_tan/∂x_δ|1/r, |E_tan⁻¹ ∂²E_tan/(∂x_δ ∂x_γ)|1/r², |E⁻¹ ∂E/∂x_δ|1/r, and |E⁻¹ ∂²E/(∂x_δ ∂x_γ)|1/r², where E_tan is the tangent modulus and E is Young’s modulus.     

Anti-plane shear crack normal to and terminating at the interface of two bonded piezoelectric ceramics

The electroelastic analysis of two bonded dissimilar piezoelectric ceramics with a crack perpendicular to and terminating at the interface is made. By using Fourier integral transform, the associated boundary value problem is reduced to a singular integral equation with generalized Cauchy kernel, the solution of which is given in closed form. Results are presented for a permeable crack under anti-plane shear loading and in-plane electric loading. Obtained results indicate that the electroelastic field near the crack tip in the homogeneous piezoelectric ceramic is dominated by a traditional inverse square-root singularity, while the electroelastic field near the crack tip at the interface exhibits the singularity of power law r^−α, r being distance from the interface crack tip and α depending on the material constants of a bi-piezoceramic. In particular, electric field has no singularity at the crack tip in a homogeneous solid, whereas it is singular around the interface crack tip. Numerical results are given graphically to show the effects of the material properties on the singularity order and field intensity factors.     

Logarithm strain singularity at tip of mode I growing crack in elasticand perfectly-plastic material

Reanalyzed in detail is the stress and strain distribution near the tip of a Mode I steadily growing crack in an elastic and perfectly-plastic material. The crack tip region is divided into five angular sectors, one of which is singular in character and represents a rapid transition zone that becomes a line of strain discontinuity in the limit as crack tip is approached. It is shown for an incompressible material (ν=0.5) under plane strain that the local strain in all the angular sectors possesses the same logarithm singularity, i.e., In r where r is the radial distance measured from the crack tip. This result also prevails for the compressible material ( v < 0.5) and resolves a long standing controversy concerning the strain singularity in the sector just ahead of the crack tip.     

High-order asymptotic analysis for the crack in nonlinear material

Accurate high-order asymptotic analyses were carried out for Mode II plane strain crack in power hardening materials. The second-order crack tip fields have been obtained. It is found that the amplitude coefficientk ₂ of the second term of the asymptotic field is correlated to the first order field as the hardening exponentn<n ^* (n ^*≈5), but asn≥n ^*,k ₂ turns to become an independent parameter. Our results also indicated that, the second term of the asymptotic field has little influence on the near-crack-tip field and can be neglected whenn<n ^*. In fact,k ₂ directly reflects the effects of triaxiality near the crack tip, the crack geometry and the loading mode, so that besidesJ-integral it can be used as another characteristic parameter in the two-parameter criterion. The project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China     

Crack repair using an elastic filler

The effect of repairing a crack in an elastic body using an elastic filler is examined in terms of the stress intensity levels generated at the crack tip. The effect of the filler is to change the stress field singularity from order 1/r^1/2 to 1/r^(1-λ) where r is the distance from the crack tip, and λ is the solution to a simple transcendental equation. The singularity power (1-λ) varies from (the unfilled crack limit) to 1 (the fully repaired crack), depending primarily on the scaled shear modulus ratio γ_r defined by G₂/G₁=γ_rε, where 2πε is the (small) crack angle, and the indices (1, 2) refer to base and filler material properties, respectively. The fully repaired limit is effectively reached for γ_r≈10, so that fillers with surprisingly small shear modulus ratios can be effectively used to repair cracks. This fits in with observations in the mining industry, where materials with G₂/G₁ of the order of 10^-3 have been found to be effective for stabilizing the walls of tunnels. The results are also relevant for the repair of cracks in thin elastic sheets.     

Two general integrals of singular crack tip deformation fields

The Eshelby tensor E has vanishing divergence in a homogeneous elastic material, whereas the invariance of the crack tip J integral suggests, in accord with known solutions, that the product rE will have a finite limit at the tip. Here r is distance from the tip. These considerations are shown to lead to two general integrals of the equations governing singular crack tip deformation fields. Some of their consequences are discussed for analysis of crack tip fields in linear and nonlinear materials.     

Penny-shaped crack in transversely isotropic piezoelectric materials

Using a method of potential functions introduced successively to integrate the field equations of three-dimensional problems for transversely isotropic piezoelectric materials, we obtain the so-called general solution in which the displacement components and electric potential functions are represented by a singular function satisfying some special partial differential equations of 6th order. In order to analyse the mechanical-electric coupling behaviour of penny-shaped crack for above materials, another form of the general solution is obtained under cylindrical coordinate system by introducing three quasi-harmonic functions into the general equations obtained above. It is shown that both the two forms of the general solutions are complete. Furthermore, the mechanical-electric coupling behaviour of penny-shaped crack in transversely isotropic piezoelectric media is analysed under axisymmetric tensile loading case, and the crack-tip stress field and electric displacement field are obtained. The results show that the stress and the electric displacement components near the crack tip have (r ^−1/2) singularity. The project supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province, China     

On the higher order asymptotic analysis of a non-uniformly propagating dynamic crack along an arbitrary path

Transient mixed-mode elastodynamic crack growth along arbitrary smoothly varying paths is considered. Asymptotically, the crack tip stress field is square root singular with the angular variation of the singular term depending weakly on the instantaneous values of the crack tip speed and on the mode-I and mode-II stress intensity factors. However, for a material particle at a small distance away from the moving crack tip, the local stress field will depend not only on the instantaneous values of the crack tip speed and stress intensity factors, but also on the past history of these time dependent quantities. In addition, for cracks propagating along curved paths the stress field is also expected to depend on the nature of the curved crack path. Here, a representation of the crack tip fields in the form of an expansion about the crack tip is obtained in powers of radial distance from the tip. The higher order coefficients of this expansion are found to depend on the time derivative of crack tip speed, the time derivatives of the two stress intensity factors as well as on the instantaneous value of the local curvature of the crack path. It is also demonstrated that even if cracks follow a curved path dictated by the criterion K ₁₁ ^d =0, the stress field may still retain higher order asymmetric components related to non-zero local curvature of the crack path.     

Stress singularities at crack corners

In this paper the stress and displacement fields near an embedded crack corner in a linear elastic medium are analytically computed. The conical-spherical coordinate system is introduced to solve this problem. It is observed that the strength of the stress singularity depends on the angle of the crack corner. The singularity becomes weaker, varying from r ^-1 to r ⁰, as the angle of the crack corner varies from 360° to 0°. Both symmetric and skew-symmetric loadings give the same variation of the behavior of the stress singularity. It is also found that the order of the singularity is independent of the Poisson's ratio, unlike the corner cracks at a free surface where Poisson's ratio affects the results.     

Damage analysis of tetragonal perovskite structure ceramics implicated by asymptotic field solutions and boundary conditions

Cracking of ceramics with tetragonal perovskite grain structure is known to appear at different sites and scale level. The multiscale character of damage depends on the combined effects of electromechanical coupling, prevailing physical parameters and boundary conditions. These detail features are exhibited by application of the energy density criterion with judicious use of the mode I asymptotic and full field solution in the range of r/a=10⁻⁴ to 10⁻² where r and a are, respectively, the distance to the crack tip and half crack length. Very close to the stationary crack tip, bifurcation is predicted resembling the dislocation emission behavior invoked in the molecular dynamics model. At the macroscopic scale, crack growth is predicted to occur straight ahead with two yield zones to the sides. A multiscale feature of crack tip damage is provided for the first time. Numerical values of the relative distances and bifurcation angles are reported for the PZT-4 ceramic subjected to different electric field to applied stress ratio and boundary conditions that consist of the specification of electric field/mechanical stress, electric displacement/mechanical strain, and mixed conditions. To be emphasized is that the multiscale character of damage in piezoceramics does not appear in general. It occurs only for specific combinations of the external and internal field parameters, elastic/piezoelectric/dielectric constants and specified boundary conditions.     

A centrally cracked thin circular disk, Part I: 3D Elastic–plastic finite element analysis

A full field solution, based on small deformation, three-dimensional elastic–plastic finite element analysis of the centrally cracked thin disk under mode I loading has been performed. The solution for the stresses under small-scale yielding and lo!cally fully plastic state has been compared with the HRR plane stress solution. At the outside of the 3D zone, within a distance of rσ_o/J=18, HRR dominance is maintained in the presence of a significant amount of compressive stress along the crack flanks. Ahead of this region, the HRR field overestimate the stresses. These results demonstrate a completely reversed state of stress in the near crack front compared to that in the plane strain case. The combined effect of geometry and finite thickness of the specimen on elastic–plastic crack tip stress field has been explored. To the best of our knowledge, such an attempt in the published literature has not been made yet. For the qualitative assessment of the results some of the field parameters have been compared to the available experimental results of K, gives a fair estimate of the crack opening stress near the crack front at a distance of order 10⁻² in. On the basis of this analysis, the Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics approach has been adopted in analyzing the fatigue crack extension experiments performed in the disk (Part II).     

The interfacial crack between two dissimilar elastic-plastic materials

This paper presents an exact asymptotic analysis on the interfacial crack between two dissimilar elastic-plastic materials. These two materials have identical hardening exponent (n ₁=n ₂) but different hardening coefficient (α₁ ≠ α₂). Two groups of the near-crack-tip fields have been obtained, which not only satisfy the continuity of both tractions (σ_θ, τ_rθ) and displacements (u _r ,u _θ) on the interface, but also meet the traction free conditions on the crack faces. The first group of fields have the mode mixityM ^P quite close toM ^P =1 (MODE I) within the whole range 0 ≤ α₁/α₂ < ∞. As for the second group of fields, which is only obtained within the narrow range 0.9 ≤ α₁/α₂ ≤ 1, it is found that the mode mixity changes sharply with the ratio value α₁/α₂. The project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China     

A method for measuring mode I crack tip constraint under static and dynamic loading conditions

A novel experimental technique for measuring crack tipT-stress, and hence in-plane crack tip constraint, in elastic materials has been developed. The method exploits optimal positioning of stacked strain gage rosette near a mode I crack tip such that the influence of dominant singular strains is negated in order to determineT-stress accurately. The method is demonstrated for quasi-static and low-velocity impact loading conditions and two values of crack length to plate width ratios (a/W). By coupling this new method with the Dally-Sanford single strain gage method for measuring the mode I stress intensity factorK _I , the crack tip biaxiality parameter is also measured experimentally. Complementary small strain, static and dynamic finite element simulations are carried out under plane stress conditions. Time histories ofK _I andT-stress are computed by regression analysis of the displacement and stress fields, respectively. The experimental results are in good agreement with those obtained from numerical simulations. Preliminary data for critical values ofK _I and β for dynamic experiments involving epoxy specimens are reported. Dynamic crack initiation toughness shows an increasing trend as β becomes more negative at higher impact velocities.     

On Discontinuity Waves in Linear Piezoelectricity

A body composed of a linear piezoelectric medium is considered. It is shown that the condition of local propagation for a singular hypersurface S of any given order r, with r≥1, can be expressed in terms of a suitable acoustic tensor. This tensor does not depend on the order r and coincides with the one used for plane progressive waves in the homogeneous case. Thus, just as in Linear Elasticity, the laws of propagation of such discontinuity waves are the same as those for plane progressive waves. For any r≥1 singular hypersurfaces are characteristic for the linear piezoelectric partial differential equations, whereas for r=0 singular hypersurfaces may be non-characteristic for such equations. A condition is written which characterizes the strong waves of order 0 that are characteristic. For the latter waves the aforementioned acoustic tensor can be used to express the condition of local propagation. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The singularity in weakly nonlinear fracture mechanics

Material failure by crack propagation essentially involves a concentration of large displacement-gradients near a crack's tip, even at scales where no irreversible deformation and energy dissipation occurs. This physical situation provides the motivation for a systematic gradient expansion of general nonlinear elastic constitutive laws that goes beyond the first order displacement-gradient expansion that is the basis for linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM). A weakly nonlinear fracture mechanics theory was recently developed by considering displacement-gradients up to second order. The theory predicts that, at scales within a dynamic lengthscale ℓ from a crack's tip, significant logr displacements and 1/r displacement-gradient contributions arise. Whereas in LEFM the 1/r singularity generates an unbalanced force and must be discarded, we show that this singularity not only exists but is also necessary in the weakly nonlinear theory. The theory generates no spurious forces and is consistent with the notion of the autonomy of the near-tip nonlinear region. The J-integral in the weakly nonlinear theory is also shown to be path-independent, taking the same value as the linear elastic J-integral. Thus, the weakly nonlinear theory retains the key tenets of fracture mechanics, while providing excellent quantitative agreement with measurements near the tip of single propagating cracks. As ℓ is consistent with lengthscales that appear in crack tip instabilities, we suggest that this theory may serve as a promising starting point for resolving open questions in fracture dynamics.     

Strain energy density criteria for dynamic fracture and dynamic crack branching

Dynamic extension of Sih's fracture criterion based on strain energy density factor, r_c (dW/dV), is used to analyze dynamic crack propagation and branching. Influence of the nonsingular components, which are known as the higher order terms (HOT) in the crack tip stress field, on the strain energy density distribution at a critical distance surrounding the crack tip moving at constant crack velocity is examined. This r_c (dW/dV) fracture criterion is then used to analyze available dynamic photoelastic results of crack branching and of engineering materials.