The optical method of caustics

An overview of the basic principles of the optical method of caustics for the determination of stress intensity factors in crack problems is presented. The method is based on the assumption that the state of stress in the neighborhood of the crack tip is plane stress. However, the state of stress changes from plane strain very close to the tip to plane stress at a critical distance from the tip through an intermediate region where the stress field is three-dimensional. The caustic is the image of the so-called initial curve on the specimen and, therefore, depends on the state of stress along the initial curve. For the determination of stress intensity factors the values of the stress-optical constants are needed. These values depend strongly on the state of stress being plane stress, plane strain or three-dimensional. This complicated the experimental determination of stress intensity factors. For the characterization of the state of affairs near the crack tip a phenomenological triaxiality factor is introduced. A methodology based on the use of optically birefringent materials is developed for the determination of stress intensity factors without paying attention to the location of the initial curve in the plane stress, plane strain or three-dimensional region. Finally, a comparison of the methods of photoelasticity and caustics takes place, and the potentialities and limitations of both methods for the solution of crack problems are explored.     

Thermal stress cleaving of silicon wafer by pulsed Nd：YAG laser

The applied laser energy absorbed in a local area in laser thermal stress cleaving of brittle materials using a controlled fracture technique produces tensile thermal stress that causes the material to separate along the moving direction of the laser beam. The material separation is similar to crack extension, but the fracture growth is controllable. Using heat transfer theory, we establish a three-dimensional （3D） mathematical thermoelastic calculational model containing a pre-existing crack for a two-point pulsed Nd：YAG laser cleaving silicon wafer. The temperature field and thermal stress field in the silicon wafer are obtained by using the finite element method （FEM）. The distribution of the tensile stress and changes in stress intensity factor around the crack tip are analyzed during the pulse duration. Meanwhile, the mechanism of crack propagation is investigated by analyzing the development of the thermal stress field during the cleaving process.     

A new procedure for investigating three-dimensional stress fields in a thin plate with a through-the-thickness crack

In the paper, a new procedure is proposed to investigate three-dimensional fracture problems of a thin elastic plate with a long through-the-thickness crack under remote uniform tensile loading. The new procedure includes a new analytical method and high accurate finite element simulations. In the part of theoretical analysis, three-dimensional Maxwell stress functions are employed in order to derive three-dimensional crack tip fields. Based on the theoretical analysis, an equation which can describe the relationship among the three-dimensional J-integral J(z), the stress intensity factor K(z) and the tri-axial stress constraint level T _z (z) is derived first. In the part of finite element simulations, a fine mesh including 153360 elements is constructed to compute the stress field near the crack front, J(z) and T _z (z). Numerical results show that in the plane very close to the free surface, the K field solution is still valid for in-plane stresses. Comparison with the numerical results shows that the analytical results are valid.     

Elliptically polarized white light photoviscoelastic technique and its application to viscoelastic fracture

The present paper demonstrates the successful application of the photoviscoelastic technique using elliptically polarized white light to the stress field evaluation of the crack growth in a viscoelastic strip. Using the proposed technique, which can determine both isochromatic and isoclinic parameters simultaneously from a single color image, the time-dependent stress state around a slowly propagating crack tip in a viscoelastic strip plate is successfully analyzed. Then, the time-dependent stress intensity factor extended for linearly viscoelastic materials is evaluated from the experimental results using a method based on the least squares. The results show that the proposed critical stress intensity factor for fast crack growth may be considered as a characteristic property of the material under monotonically increasing load.     

On the plastic zone size and crack tip opening displacement of a sub-interface crack in an infinite bi-material plate

Elastic–plastic stress analysis has been carried out for the plastic zone size and crack tip opening displacement of a sub-interface crack with small scale yielding. In our study, the shape of plastic zone is assumed as a long, slim strip at both crack tips. In the plastic zone, both normal stress and shear stress exist and are considered due to the bi-material interface. The values of the plastic zone size, normal stress and shear stress are determined by satisfying the conditions where both Modes I and II stress intensity factors vanish and Von Mises yield criterion is met. In the present paper, the sub-interface crack is simulated by continuously distributed dislocations which will result in singular integral equations. Those singular integral equations can be solved by reducing them to a set of linear equations. The values of the plastic zone size and crack tip opening displacement are obtained through an iterative procedure. Finally, the effect of normalized loading, normalized crack depth (distance to the interface) and Dundurs’ parameters on the normalized plastic zone size and the normalized crack tip opening displacement is discussed.     

SH-wave propagation and resonance phenomena in a periodically layered composite structure with a crack

This paper presents a dynamic analysis of time-harmonic plane SH-waves propagating in periodically multilayered elastic composites with a strip-like crack. The total wave field in the multilayered elastic structure is described as a sum of incident wave field modeled by the transfer matrix method and the scattered wave field governed by an integral representation containing the crack-opening-displacement. The integral equation derived from the boundary conditions on the crack-faces is solved numerically by a Galerkin method. The paper focuses on resonant and non-resonant regimes of anti-plane wave motion in a stack of elastic layers weakened by a single strip-like crack and wave localization in the vicinity of the crack. The scattered extra displacement induced by the presence of the crack is investigated in detail for both situations of high and low contrast in material properties. Numerical results for the average crack-opening-displacement, the transmission coefficient, the stress intensity factor and the average energy flow are presented and discussed to reveal wave resonance and localization phenomena within the band-gaps and the pass-bands.     

Elastic behaviour of an edge dislocation near a sharp crack emanating from a semi-elliptical blunt crack

The interaction between an edge dislocation and a crack emanating from a semi-elliptic hole is dealt with. Utilizing the complex variable method, closed form solutions are derived for complex potentials and stress fields. The stress intensity factor at the tip of the crack and the image force acting on the edge dislocation are also calculated. The influence of the morphology of the blunt crack and the position of the edge dislocation on the shielding effect to the crack and the image force is examined in detail. The results indicate that the shielding or anti-shielding effect to the stress intensity factor increases acutely when the dislocation approaches the tip of the crack. The effect of the morphology of the blunt crack on the stress intensity factor of the crack and the image force is very significant.     

Elastic behaviour of a wedge disclination dipole near a sharp crack emanating from a semi-elliptical blunt crack

The interaction between a wedge disclination dipole and a crack emanating from a semi-elliptic hole is investigated. Utilising the complex variable method, the closed form solutions are derived for complex potentials and stress fields. The stress intensity factor at the tip of the crack and the image force acting on the disclination dipole center are also calculated. The influence of the morphology of the blunt crack and the position of the disclination dipole on the shielding effect to the crack and the image force is examined in detail. The results indicate that the shielding or anti-shielding effect to the stress intensity factor increases when the wedge disclination dipole approaches the tip of the crack. The effects of the morphology of the blunt crack on the stress intensity factor of the crack and the image force are very significant.     

Fracture analysis of a functionally graded interfacial zone between two dissimilar homogeneous materials

In this paper the plane elasticity problem for a functionally graded interfacial zone containing a crack between two dissimilar homogeneous materials has been considered. It is assumed that in the interfacial zone the reciprocal of the shear modulus is a linear function of the coordinate, while Possion’s ratio keeps constant. By utilizing the Fourier transformation technique and the transfer matrix method, the mixed boundary problem is reduced to a system of singular integral equations that are solved numerically. The influences of the geometric parameters and the graded parameter on the stress intensity factors are investigated. The numerical results show that the graded parameters, the thickness of interfacial zone, the crack size and location have significant effects on the stress intensity factors.     

Fracture behaviors induced by thermal stress in an anisotropic half plane superconductor

This Letter presents a theoretical analysis to the fracture behavior of a large single domain YBCO superconductor under thermal stress based on the two-dimensional theory of anisotropic thermoelasticity, the coupled finite element and infinite element numerical method. The thermal stress intensity factors are obtained due to a uniform heat flux by a line crack in a generally half plane superconductor. It is found that the thermal stress intensity factors decrease with the decrease of temperature, and while the longer the crack length is, the larger the stress intensity factors. Additionally, the J-integral at the crack tip is also investigated, a similar behavior to the thermal stress intensity factors is found. These results are benefit for us to understand the fracture mechanism of superconductor both in theory and application.     

Elastic analysis of a mode Ⅱ crack in an icosahedral quasicrystal

Based on the displacement potential functions, the elastic analysis of a mode II crack in an icosahedral quasicrystal is performed by using the Fourier transform and dual integral equation theory. By the solution, the analytic expressions for the displacement field and stress field are obtained. The asymptotic behaviours of the phonon and phason stress fields around the crack tip indicate that the stresses near the crack tip exhibit a square root singularity. The most important physical quantities of fracture theory, crack stress intensity factor and energy release rate, are evaluated in an explicit version.     

A model of a belt chamber cracking based on crack profiles calculations

Abstract

The problem of a Belt chamber matrix cracking is presented. The influence of crack surface quality on the effective values of near crack tip stress is discussed. It is shown that under working conditions of the vessel, the existing shear friction between upper and lower crack surfaces caused by crack surface roughness can prevent the crack surface sliding displacement. Therefore, the control variable for matrix cracking is the value of stress intensity factor K_I corresponding to normal node of loading only. The calculations are performed by finite element method within the range of linear elastic fracture mechanics.     

Complex variable method for plane elasticity of icosahedral quasicrystals and elliptic notch problem

The complex variable method for the plane elasticity theory of icosahedral quasi-crystals is developed. Based on the general solution obtained previously, complex representations of stress and displacement components of phonon and phason fields in the quasicrystals are given. With the help of conformal transformation, an analytic solution for the elliptic notch problem of the material is presented. The solution of the Griffith crack problem can be observed as a special case of the results. The stress intensity factor and energy release rate of the crack are also obtained.     

Strength evaluation of brittle ceramics with surface defects subjected to thermal shock

The thermal shock strength of a ceramic material plate with a semi-elliptical surface crack is evaluated in this paper. The thermal stress distribution at the plate without crack is expressed by a polynomial form. The calculated thermal stresses are used to obtain the thermal stress intensity factors of semi-elliptical surface cracks using the geometric functions. Variations of thermal stress intensity factor with crack depth and time are obtained. For the strength evaluation of the material, crack growth analysis is conducted. In addition, the thermal shock resistance of the ceramic material plate is evaluated by the stress-based failure criterion and the toughness-based failure criterion. The critical temperature at which crack propagation starts is obtained. Applicability of the two failure criteria in thermal shock resistance evaluation of ceramic is identified and the importance of the semi-elliptical surface defects on the thermal shock resistance behaviour of ceramic materials is justified.     

Shielding effect and emission criterion of a screw dislocation near an interfacial blunt crack

Shielding effect and emission criterion of a screw dislocation near an interfacial blunt crack are dealt with in this paper. Utilizing the conformal mapping technique, the closed-form solutions are derived for complex potentials and stress fields due to a screw dislocation located near the interfacial blunt crack. The stress intensity factor on the crack tips and the critical stress intensity factor for dislocation emission are also calculated. The influence of the orientation of the dislocation and the morphology of the blunt crack as well as the material elastic dissimilarity on the shielding effect and the emission criterion is discussed in detail. The results show that positive screw dislocations can reduce the stress intensity factor of the interfacial blunt crack tip (shielding effect). The shielding effect increases with the increase of the shear modulus of the lower half-plane, but it decreases with the increase of the dislocation azimuth angle. The critical loads at infinity for dislocation emission increases with the increase of emission angle and curvature radius of blunt crack tip, and the most probable angle for screw dislocation emission is zero. The present solutions contain previous results as special cases.     

Measurement of dynamic crack tip displacement field by speckle photography and interferometry

Speckle interferometry has been used to measure the transient displacement field around a crack due to stress wave loading. Double exposure interferograms are recorded with a pulsed ruby laser, and correlation fringes formed by spatial filtering of the developed film. A new technique is presented for reducing the noise level in spatially filtered speckle interferograms. Independent fringe patterns, obtained from one interferogram but with the filtering aperture sampling different regions of the Fourier transform plane, are digitised by a CCD camera and combined numerically. It is demonstrated that accurate analysis of fringe patterns by the Fourier transform method can be carried out, even if no carrier fringes are present. The measurements are compared with those obtained by speckle photography. Least-squares fitting of the theoretical displacement field is used to calculate the stress intensity factor at the crack tip as a function of time.     

Multiaxial Fatigue Crack Orientation and Early Growth Investigation Considering the Nonproportional Loading

The paper presents a comprehensive investigation of fatigue cracking behaviors under various nonproportional multiaxial cycle loading paths based on the critical plane approach. The maximum normal and shear stress/strain fields are presented to analyze the crack orientation and early growth directions in polar diagrams. The experimental observed crack paths and directions were compared with maximum strain loci of each angle to determine multiaxial fatigue failure mode. The results show that crack orientation and growth paths appear in the maximum shear and normal strain plane, respectively. Likelihood cracking regions of various loading paths are predicted according the determined failure mode. Besides, nonproportionality factor is introduced to characterize the degree of multiaxiality on these loading paths.     

Diffraction of elastic waves by a sub-surface crack (anti-plane motion)

A rigorous theory of the diffraction of SH-waves by a stress-free crack embedded in a semi-infinite elastic medium is presented. The incident time-harmonic SH-wave is taken to be either a uniform plane wave or a cylindrical wave originating from a surface line-source. The resulting boundary-value problem for the unknown jump in the particle displacement across the crack is solved by employing an integral equation approach. The unknown quantity is expanded in a complete sequence of Chebyshev polynomials. By writing the Green function as a Fourier integral, an infinite system of linear, algebraic equations for the expansion coefficients is obtained. Numerical results are presented for the particle displacement at the surface of the half-space, the far field radiation characteristic, the scattering cross-section of the crack and the dynamic stress intensity factor at the crack tips, for a range of geometrical parameters.     

The interaction of two collinear cracks in a rectangular superconductor slab under an electromagnetic force

The interaction of two collinear cracks is obtained for a type-II superconducting under electromagnetic force. Fracture analysis is performed by means of finite element method and the magnetic behavior of superconductor is described by the critical-state Bean model. The stress intensity factors at the crack tips can be obtained and discussed for decreasing field after zero-field cooling. It is revealed that the stress intensity factor decreases as applied field increases. The crack-tip stress intensity factors decrease when the distance between the two collinear cracks increases and the superconductors with smaller crack has more remarkable shielding effect than those with larger cracks.     

PLANE ELASTICITY PROBLEM OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL OCTAGONAL QUASICRYSTALS AND CRACK PROBLEM

The plane elasticity theory of two-dimensional octagonal quasicrystals is developed in this paper. The plane elasticity problem of quasicrystals is reduced to a single higher-order partial differential equation by introducing a displacement function. As an example, the exact analytic solution of a Mode I Griffith crack in the material is obtained by using the Fourier transform and dual integral equations theory, then the displacement and stress fields, stress intensity factor and strain energy release rate can be calculated. The physical significance of the results relative to the phason and the difference between the mechanical behaviours of the crack problem in crystals and quasicrystals are figured out. These provide important information for studying the deformation and fracture of the new solid phase.