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