A reexamination of plasticity-induced crack closure in fatigue crack propagation

The crack closure concept is often used to consider the R-ratio and overload effects on fatigue crack growth. The presumption is that when the crack is closed, the external load produces negligible fatigue damage in the cracked component. The current investigation provides a reassessment of the frequently used concept with an emphasis on the plasticity-induced crack closure. A center cracked specimen made of 1070 steel was investigated. The specimen was subjected to plane-stress mode I loading. An elastic–plastic stress analysis was conducted for the cracked specimens using the finite element method. By applying the commonly used one-node-per-cycle debonding scheme for the crack closure simulations, it was shown that the predicted crack opening load did not stabilize when the extended crack was less than four times of the plastic zone size. The predicted opening load was strongly influenced by the plasticity model used. When the elastic–perfectly plastic (EPP) stress–strain relationship was used together with the kinematic hardening plasticity theory, the predicted crack opening load was found to be critically dependent on the element size of the finite element mesh model. For R = 0, the predicted crack opening load was greatly reduced when the finite element size became very fine. The kinematic hardening rule with the bilinear (BL) stress–strain relationship predicted crack closure with less dependence on the element size. When a recently developed cyclic plasticity model was used, the element size effect on the predicted crack opening level was insignificant. While crack closure may occur, it was demonstrated that cyclic plasticity persisted in the material near the crack tip. The cyclic plasticity was reduced but not negligible when the crack was closed. The traditional approaches may have overestimated the effect of crack closure in fatigue crack growth predictions.     

Monitoring Fatigue Crack Growth in Compact Tension Specimens Using Piezoelectric Sensors

This paper aims to report the results of an experimental study on the application of piezoelectric dynamic strain sensors for crack length measurement in fracture mechanics specimens. The performance of the piezoelectric sensors was assessed through fatigue crack propagation tests in compact tension (CT) specimens. Sensors of polarized polyvinilidene fluoride polymer (PVDF) were bonded to the back face of CT specimens, in the same manner as the electrical resistance strain gages installed for crack length measurement in the back face strain technique. The results showed that, mainly due to its high sensitivity to strain, the use of piezoelectric materials as dynamic strain sensors can contribute to the experimental investigation in the field of fracture mechanics.     

Delamination of an elastic film from an elastic–plastic substrate during adhesive contact loading and unloading

Adhesive contact between a rigid sphere and an elastic film on an elastic–perfectly plastic substrate was examined in the context of finite element simulation results. Surface adhesion was modeled by nonlinear springs obeying a force-displacement relationship governed by the Lennard–Jones potential. A bilinear cohesive zone law with prescribed cohesive strength and work of adhesion was used to simulate crack initiation and growth at the film/substrate interface. It is shown that the unloading response consists of five sequential stages: elastic recovery, interface damage (crack) initiation, damage evolution (delamination), film elastic bending, and abrupt surface separation (jump-out), with plastic deformation in the substrate occurring only during damage initiation. Substrate plasticity produces partial closure of the cohesive zone upon full unloading (jump-out), residual tensile stresses at the front of the crack tip, and irreversible downward bending of the elastic film. Finite element simulations illustrate the effects of minimum surface separation (i.e., maximum compressive surface force), work of adhesion and cohesive strength of the film/substrate interface, substrate yield strength, and initial crack size on the evolution of the surface force, residual deflection of the elastic film, film-substrate separation (debonding), crack-tip opening displacement, and contact instabilities (jump-in and jump-out) during a full load–unload cycle. The results of this study provide insight into the interdependence of contact instabilities and interfacial damage (cracking) encountered in layered media during adhesive contact loading and unloading.     

Bridging effects in cracked laminates under thermal gradients

An approach for the coupled thermomechanical analysis of composite structures with bridged cracks is described. A crack bridging law is presented that accounts for breakdown of load as well as of heat transfer across the crack with increasing crack opening. The crack bridging law is implemented into a finite element framework as a cohesive zone model and is used for the investigation of unidirectional laminates under prescribed temperature gradients. The effects of crack bridging parameters on energy release rates, mode mixity and crack heat flux is discussed for boundary conditions which lead to crack opening either through bending deformation or delamination buckling.     

Influence of precatastrophic extension and other effects on local stresses in cracked plates under bending fields

Using the technique of stress freezing and slicing, a set of photoelastic experiments was conducted on plates, each containing a single through internal crack in a remote cylindrical bending field, where each crack suffered precatastrophic extension on the tensile side of the plate as well as closure on the compression side. Resulting stresses were compared with the Sih-Hartranft theory. Results indicate substantial stress relaxation near the tensile side of the plate due to precatastrophic extension. It is concluded that: (1) the Sih-Hartranft theory may be used to estimate local elastic stresses on the tensile side of the plate even when closure and precatastrophic extension occur; (2) complex coupling of closure and precatastrophic extension effects preclude the use of simple correction factors for existing mathematical models except for relatively small precatastrophic extension.     

Fatigue crack closure of surface flaws loaded in pure bending

The objective of this paper is to report fatigue crack growth and closure behavior for surface flaws subjected to pure bending. An optical interference technique is employed with PMMA, a transparent polymer, to determine the three-dimensional crack-surface displacement field. The point-wise measure of crack closure along the crack front obtained from optical interference is compared with an average (bulk) crack-opening load determined via crack-mouth-displacement gage measurements. In addition, the effect of crack-closure loads on the subsequent growth of the surface flaw is examined. Dr. Ray is currently associated with The Boeing Company, Seattle, WA.     

Low-energy impact of adaptive cylindrical piezoelectric–composite shells

A theoretical framework for analyzing low-energy impacts of laminated shells with active and sensory piezoelectric layers is presented, including impactor dynamics and contact law. The formulation encompasses a coupled piezoelectric shell theory mixing first order shear displacement assumptions and layerwise variation of electric potential. An exact in-plane Ritz solution for the impact of open cylindrical piezoelectric–composite shells is developed and solved numerically using an explicit time integration scheme. The active impact control problem of adaptive cylindrical shells with distributed curved piezoelectric actuators is addressed. The cases of optimized state feedback controllers and output feedback controllers using piezoelectric sensors are analyzed. Numerical results quantify the impact response of cylindrical shells of various curvatures including the signal of curved piezoelectric sensors. Additional numerical studies quantify the impact response of adaptive cylindrical panels and investigate the feasibility of actively reducing the impact force.     

Effects of electric field on crack growth for a penny-shaped dielectric crack in a piezoelectric layer

The assumptions of impermeable and permeable cracks give rise to significant errors in determining electro-elastic behavior of a cracked piezoelectric material. The former simply imposes that the permittivity or electric displacement of the crack interior vanishes, and the latter neglects also the effects of the dielectric of an opening crack interior. Considering the presence of the dielectric of an opening crack interior and the permeability of the crack surfaces for electric field, this paper analyzes electro-elastic behavior induced by a penny-shaped dielectric crack in a piezoelectric ceramic layer. In the cases of prescribed displacement or prescribed stress at the layer surfaces, the Hankel transform technique is employed to reduce the problem to Fredholm integral equations with a parameter dependent nonlinearly on the unknown functions. For an infinite piezoelectric space, a closed-form solution can be derived explicitly, while for a piezoelectric layer, an iterative technique is suggested to solve the resulting nonlinear equations. Field intensity factors are obtained in terms of the solution of the equations. Numerical results of the crack opening displacement intensity factors are presented for a cracked PZT-5H layer and the effect of applied electric field on crack growth are examined for both cases. The results indicate that the fracture toughness of a piezoelectric ceramic is affected by the direction of applied electric fields, dependent on the elastic boundary conditions.     

Effects of partial crack–face contact for the bending of thin shell structures

The physical occurrence that crack surfaces are in contact at the compressive edges when a flat or a shell is subjected to a bending load has been recognized. This article presents a theoretical analysis of crack–face contact effect on the stress intensity factor of various shell structures such as spherical shell, cylindrical shell containing an axial crack, cylindrical shell containing a circumferential crack and shell with two non-zero curvatures, under a bending load. The formulation of the problem is based on the shear deformation theory, incorporating crack–face contact by introducing distributed force at the compressive edge. Material orthotropy is concerned in this analysis. Three-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA) is conduced to compare with the theoretical solution. It is found that due to curvature effect crack–face contact behavior in shells differs from that in flat plates, in that partial contact of crack surfaces may occur in shells, depending on the shell curvature and the nature of the bending load. Crack–face contact has significant influence on the stress intensity factor and it increases the membrane component but decreases the bending component.     

Non-linear behavior of delaminated unidirectional sandwich panels with partial contact and a transversely flexible core

The paper presents the results of an investigation of the non-linear behavior of delaminated sandwich panels with a compressible core. The delaminated zone, at one of the face-core interfaces, consists of through-the-width crack, which is free of shear stresses but is capable of accommodating partial contact with compressive stresses only within the debonded zone. The governing non-linear equations along with the appropriate boundary conditions and the continuity conditions are derived through variational principles. The governing equations include moderate deformations type of kinematic relations, and include the high-order effects due to the transverse flexibility of the core. The governing equations along with the stress and displacements fields for the core and the appropriate continuity conditions are presented. The effects of the non-linear response and the partial contact are described through some numerical cases of three points bending typical sandwich panels with inner delaminations in the vicinity of a concentrated load, in the vicinity of a stiffened core and, finally, far from the load. Numerical results in the form of displacements, bending moments, shear stresses in the core and vertical interfacial normal stresses at the upper and lower face-core interfaces along the panel length and at the delamination crack tips are presented. Buckling curves of load versus various extreme structural parameters are included. The analyses show that a full contact type of delamination transforms into a partial contact area with buckling of the compressed face sheet, as the load is increased and it is associated with extreme large displacements and stresses.     

A thermomechanical cohesive zone model for bridged delamination cracks

The coupled thermomechanical numerical analysis of composite laminates with bridged delamination cracks loaded by a temperature gradient is described. The numerical approach presented is based on the framework of a cohesive zone model. A traction-separation law is presented which accounts for breakdown of the micromechanisms responsible for load transfer across bridged delamination cracks. The load transfer behavior is coupled to heat conduction across the bridged delamination crack. The coupled crack-bridging model is implemented into a finite element framework as a thermomechanical cohesive zone model (CZM). The fundamental response of the thermomechanical CZM is described. Subsequently, bridged delamination cracks of fixed lengths are studied. Values of the crack tip energy release rate and of the crack heat flux are computed to characterize the loading of the structure. Specimen geometries are considered that lead to crack opening through bending deformation and buckling delamination. The influence of critical mechanical and thermal parameters of the bridging zone on the thermomechanical delamination behavior is discussed. Bridging fibers not only contribute to crack conductance, but by keeping the crack opening small they allow heat flux across the delamination crack to be sustained longer, and thereby contribute to reduced levels of thermal stresses. The micro-mechanism based cohesive zone model allows the assessment of the effectiveness of the individual mechanisms contributing to the thermomechanical crack bridging embedded into the structural analysis.     

Ultrasonic Wave Propagation in Progressively Loaded Multi-Wire Strands

In recent years methods based on guided ultrasonic waves gained increasing attention for the nondestructive evaluation and the health monitoring of multi-wire strands used in civil structures as prestressing tendons and stay cables. The study of wave propagation properties in such components has been challenging due to the load-dependent inter-wire contact and the helical geometry of the peripheral wires. The present paper addresses an experimental investigation on the ultrasonic wave propagation in seven-wire strands loaded at different stress levels. Wafer piezoelectric sensors are employed in a through transmission configuration for the generation and detection of stress waves. The response of the lowest-order longitudinal mode is studied at different levels of load. Those ultrasonic features, associated with the transmitted ultrasonic energy, sensitive to the variation of applied load are identified and discussed as possible means of a load monitoring.     

Edge-cracked bimaterial systems under thermal heating

The problem of thermoelastic edge-cracking in two-layered bimaterial systems subjected to convective heating is considered. The medium is assumed to be insulated on one surface and exposed to sudden convective heating on another surface containing the edge crack. It is known that, when a bimaterial system’s surface is heated, compressive stresses arise near the heating surface, forcing the crack surfaces together over a certain cusp-shaped contact length. It is also known that, for a cooled bimaterial systems surface, tensile stresses take place close to the cooling surface and tend to open the crack. So, the edge cracked heating surface problem is treated as an embedded crack with a smooth closure condition of the crack surfaces, with the crack contact length being an additional unknown variable. Superposition and uncoupled quasi-static thermoelasticity principles are adopted to formulate the problem. By using a Fourier integral transform technique, the mixed boundary value problem is reduced to a Cauchy type singular integral equation with an unknown function as the derivative of the crack surface displacement. The numerical results of the stress intensity factors for an edge crack and a crack terminating at the interface, are calculated and presented as a function of time, crack length, heat transfer coefficient, and thickness ratio for two different bimaterial systems, namely a stainless steel layer welded on ferritic steel and a ceramic layer coating on ferritic steel.     

Domain switching effect on fracture of piezoelectric solids

Rational design of smart sensors and actuators that consist of piezoelectric solids requires a thorough understanding of the constitutive behavior of this material under mechanical and electrical loading. Domain switching is the cause of significant nonlinearity in the constitutive behavior of piezoelectric solids, which may be enhanced in the presence of cracks. In this paper, the response of piezoelectric solids is formulated by coupling thermal, electrical, and mechanical effects. The corresponding finite element equations are derived and applied in the solution of the piezoelectric center crack problems. The effects of domain switching are evaluated on the near tip stress intensity factors.     

Finite element analyses of cracks in piezoelectric structures: a survey

Piezoelectric materials have widespread applications in modern technical areas such as mechatronics, smart structures or microsystem technology, where they serve as sensors or actuators. For the assessment of strength and reliability of piezoelectric structures under combined electrical and mechanical loading, the existence of cracklike defects plays an important role. Meanwhile, piezoelectric fracture mechanics has been established quite well, but its application to realistic crack configurations and loading situations in piezoelectric structures requires the use of numerical techniques as finite element methods (FEM) or boundary element methods (BEM). The aim of this paper is to review the state of the art of FEM to compute the coupled electromechanical boundary value problem of cracks in 2D and 3D piezoelectric structures under static and dynamic loading. In order to calculate the relevant fracture parameters very precisely and efficiently, the numerical treatment must account for the singularity of the mechanical and electrical fields at crack tips. The following specialized techniques are presented in detail (1) special singular crack tip elements, (2) determination of intensity factors K _I –K _IV from near tip fields, (3) modified crack closure integral, (4) computation of the electromechanical J-integral, and (5) exploitation of interaction integrals. Special emphasis is devoted to a realistic modeling of the dielectric medium inside the crack, leading to specific electric crack face boundary conditions. The accuracy, efficiency, and applicability of these techniques are examined by various example problems and discussed with respect to their advantages and drawbacks for practical applications.     

Numerical study of contact forces for crack closure analysis

Plasticity induced crack closure (PICC) has been widely studied using numerical models. Different numerical parameters can be considered to quantify the opening level, namely one based on the analysis of contact stresses at minimum load. A modified version of this parameter is proposed here, based on nodal contact forces instead of contact stresses. The predictions were found to be similar to those obtained from the contact status of 2nd node behind crack tip. The PICC_contact parameter was also found to be very consistent and adequate for parametric studies of the influence of different physical parameters. The contributions to the opening stress intensity factor of different points along crack flank were found to strongly decrease with distance to crack tip. The cumulative K_open between the crack tip and a distance of 0.1 mm was found to vary from 30% to 100%, increasing with stress ratio, R. Finally, a K solution was developed for punctual forces applied on crack flank and compared with a literature solution for infinite plates. A good agreement was found for plane strain state but significant differences of about 10% were found for plane stress state.     

Monitoring surface breaking defects with piezoelectric active systems

This paper is concerned with an experimental study and a numerical study of the application of two active techniques to monitor the growth of fatigue cracks and simulated defects in beams using piezoelectric sensors and actuators. The first technique is a transfer function method that consists of exciting the structure with piezoelectric actuators, while recording the electromechanical response of sensors placed close to the defect. Results have shown that the choice of adequate parameters, such as sensor size and its distance to the defect edge, allows the detection of small changes in defect depth. Finite-element simulations were also performed to determine a correlation between sensor response and defect depth. The second method is an impedance technique where a single piezoelectric element is used to excite and to monitor the growth of the defect. This technique was evaluated through experiments where a machined slot of increasing depth was monitored by measuring the electrical admittance of the piezoelectric sensor.     

Bending of Timoshenko beam with effect of crack gap based on equivalent spring model

Considering the effect of crack gap,the bending deformation of the Timoshenko beam with switching cracks is studied.To represent a crack with gap as a nonlinear unidirectional rotational spring,the equivalent flexural rigidity of the cracked beam is derived with the generalized Dirac delta function.A closed-form general solution is obtained for bending of a Timoshenko beam with an arbitrary number of switching cracks.Three examples of bending of the Timoshenko beam are presented.The influence of the beam’s slenderness ratio,the crack’s depth,and the external load on the crack state and bending performances of the cracked beam is analyzed.It is revealed that a cusp exists on the deflection curve,and a jump on the rotation angle curve occurs at a crack location.The relation between the beam’s deflection and load is bilinear,each part corresponding to an open or closed state of crack,respectively.When the crack is open,flexibility of the cracked beam decreases with the increase of the beam’s slenderness ratio and the decrease of the crack depth.The results are useful in identifying non-destructive cracks on a beam.     

Mixed mode crack initiation in piezoelectric ceramic strip

When piezoelectric ceramics are subjected to mechanical and electrical load, they can fracture prematurely due to their brittle behavior. Hence, it is important to know the electro–elastic interaction and fracture behavior of piezoelectric materials. The problem of a through crack in a piezoelectric strip of finite thickness is studied in this paper. Fourier transforms are used to reduce the problem to the solution of singular integral equations. The model technique can solve for polarization in an arbitrary direction and material anisotropy. Numerical values of the crack-tip field amplification for a piezoelectric strip under in-plane electromechanical loading are obtained. Energy density factor criterion is applied to obtain the maximum of the minimum energy density and direction of crack initiation. The influence of crack length and crack position on stress intensity and energy density factors is discussed.     

Closed crack imaging using time reversal method based on fundamental and second harmonic scattering

A recent variant of time reversal imaging is employed for reconstructing images of a closed crack, based on both the fundamental and the second harmonic components of the longitudinal scattered field due to an incident longitudinal wave. The scattered field data are generated by a finite element model that includes unilateral contact with Coulomb friction between the crack faces to account for the Contact Acoustic Nonlinearity. The closure state of the crack is controlled by specifying a pre-stress between the crack faces. The knowledge of the scattered field at the fundamental (incident) frequency and the second harmonic frequency for multiple incident angles provides the required inputs for the imaging algorithm. It is shown that the image reconstructed from the fundamental harmonic closely matches the image that is obtained from scattering data in the absence of contact, although contact between the crack faces reduces the amplitude of the scattered field in the former case. The fundamental harmonic image is shown to provide very accurate estimates of crack length for low to moderate levels of pre-stress. The second harmonic image is also shown to provide acceptable estimates of crack length and the image is shown to correlate with the source location of second harmonic along the crack, which becomes increasingly localized near the crack tips for decreasing levels of pre-stress. The influence of the number of sensors on the image quality is also discussed in order to identify the minimum sensors number requirement. Finally, multiple frequency imaging is performed over a fixed bandwidth to assess the potential improvement of the imaging algorithm when considering broadband information.