Two arbitrarily located normal forces and a penny‐shaped crack: a complete solution

The following problem is considered: a penny‐shaped crack is located in the plane z=0 of a transversely isotropic elastic space and interacts with two equal and opposite normal forces, which are located arbitrarily, but symmetrically with respect to the plane of the crack. An exact closed‐form solution is obtained and expressed in terms of elementary functions for the fields of stresses and displacements in the whole space. This kind of problem deemed to be intractable by the methods of contemporary mathematical analysis, and has never been attempted before, even in the case of an isotropic body. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On stresses in a strip with a crack

The solution of the problem of a loaded crack in an infinite strip is given using the method of superposition of three problems (a loaded crack in the infinite plane; an infinite homogeneous strip with normal and tangent stresses that are given on nonhomogeneous boundaries; an infinite strip with longitudinal generators which are free from load and an arbitrary load at the end), which makes it possible to satisfy the boundary conditions exactly.Translated from Dinamicheskie Sistemy, No. 9, pp. 65–71, 1990.     

External circular crack under arbitrary shear loading

An exact closed form solution in terms of elementary functions has been obtained to the governing integral equation of an external circular crack in a transversely isotropic elastic body. The crack is subjected to arbitrary tangential loading applied antisymmetrically to its faces. The recently discovered method of continuity solutions was used here. The solution to the governing integral equation gives the direct relationship between the tangential displacements of the crack faces and the applied loading. Now a complete solution to the problem, with formulae for the field of all stresses and displacements, is possible.     

An experimental-analytical hybrid model for the elasto-plastic stresses at a crack

The primary obstacle preventing the analytical determination of physically sensible stresses at a crack tip is the presence of a mathematical singularity there. This singularity is best known in its elastic form; however it persists even in elasto-plastic crack-tip stresses. To overcome the difficulty we adopt the following strategy: we attempt to capture initial elastic stresses experimentally, than track subsequent elasto-plastic stress distributions analytically.We infer a finite stress at a crack tip from the experimental behaviour of cracked specimens at fracture when the specimens are made of a truly brittle material. Given a size-independent result, we argue that the crack-tip stress at fracture must equal the ultimate stress for such a material; thus dividing by the applied stress at the same point gives a measure of the stress concentration factor, K_T. The approach is checked for size independence and against hole configurations with known theoretical, yet physically reasonable, K_T. Then the effective experimental KT are taken as inputs for the second phase of the study in which we model the crack as being a smooth notch having the same stress concentration factor as found experimentally. In this way our configuration initially shares the same stresses at the crack tip as we inferred physically. Next we track effects of incremental plastic flow on a set of finite element grids. Satisfactory resolution in return for modest computational effort is obtained by employing a substructuring method. The accuracy in both the elastic and the elasto-plastic regime is checked against trial problems with exact solutions. Thereafter, physically interpretable stress distributions ahead of the crack are determined for a range of materials and for varying load levels.     

A Yoffe-type moving crack in one-dimensional hexagonal piezoelectric quasicrystals

A Yoffe-type moving crack in one-dimensional hexagonal piezoelectric quasicrystals is considered. The Fourier transform technique is used to solve a moving crack problem under the action of antiplane shear and inplane electric field. Full elastic stresses of phonon and phason fields and electric fields are derived for a crack running with constant speed in the periodic plane. Obtained results show that the coupled elastic fields inside piezoelectric quasicrystals depend on the speed of crack propagation, and exhibit the usual square-root singularity at the moving crack tip. Electric field and phason stresses do not have singularity and electric displacement and phonon stresses have the inverse square-root singularity at the crack tip for a permeable crack. The field intensity factors and energy release rates are obtained in closed form. The crack velocity does not affect the field intensity factors, but alters the dynamic energy release rate. Bifurcation angle of a moving crack in a 1D hexagonal piezoelectric quasicrystal is evaluated from the viewpoint of energy balance. Obtained results are helpful to better understanding crack advance in piezoelectric quasicrystals.     

Limit equilibrium of a closed transversally isotropic cylindrical shell with a nonthrough longitudinal crack

In the context of an analog of the Leonov-Panasyuk-Dagdeil model we consider the problem of limit equilibrium of a nonshallow transversally isotropic cylindrical shell weakened by a nonthrough surface longitudinal crack. Based on the equations that take account of the initial stresses, we reduce the problem to a system of two singular integral equations with unknown limits of integration. We carry out a numerical analysis of the dependence of the opening of the edges of the crack on the load and the geometric and physico-mechanical parameters of the shell. Translated fromMatematichni Metodi ta Fiziko-mekhanichni Polya, Vol. 39, No. 1, 1996, pp. 31–36.     

On the peculiarities of a crack growth path in anisotropic solid

One of the possibilities to increase the resistance of a structure to catastrophic fracture is to force a main line crack to deviate from its path. In this connection the influence of the elastic moduli of an anisotropic material on the possibilities of crack rotation are studied. In particular a linear elastic problem for a straight Mode I crack, located on a symmetry axis of an orthotropic plane is considered. The strength properties of the material are supposed to be isotropic. For studying a direction of a crack growth path several crack models are considered. It is shown that a thin elongated elliptical hole as a crack model leads to more plausible results concerning crack rotation conditions than an ideal cut model. The maximal tensile stresses are taken as a crack growth criterion. It is shown that for some class of orthotropic materials a crack deviates from the straight path just after it starts to grow even in the conditions of uniaxial normal tension. The problem of the stability of a straight crack path under Mode I loading is also considered. This problem is reduced to the problem of the fracture direction determination for thin elongated elliptical cavity slightly inclined to the initial direction. In the frame of the proposed approach the conditions of instability are obtained. It is shown that for some class of orthotropic materials a straight crack path is unstable in the conditions of uniaxial normal tension. This class of materials is wider than one for which a crack deviates from the straight crack path just after its start. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Kinetics of crack growth in polymethylmethacrylate in various static tension regimes

It has been established that at medium stresses and temperatures crack development in PMMA takes place in three stages: in the first stage the crack grows with progressive deceleration; in the second stage, which determines the life of the specimen, there is almost no development; and only in the final stage does the rate of growth of the crack rapidly increase. Damage accumulation in the interior of the polymer remote from the main crack is shown to play an important part. Experimental stress and temperature dependences have been obtained for the starting velocity and the incubation period of crack development together with a universal relation between these characteristics. The processes determining the crack growth kinetics in the various phases of long-term static tension are given a physical basis.All-Union Correspondence Structural Engineering Institute. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 5, pp. 904–911, September–October, 1971.     

Thermal stress state of a bimaterial with a closed interfacial crack having rough surfaces

We have formulated the problem of thermoelasticity for a bimaterial whose components differ only in their shear moduli, with a closed interfacial crack having rough surfaces. The bimaterial is subjected to the action of compressive loads and heat flow normal to the interfacial surface. We have taken into account the dependence of thermal conductance of the defect on the contact pressure of its faces and heat conductivity of the medium that fills it. The problem is reduced to a Prandtl-type nonlinear singular integro-differential equation for temperature jump between the crack surfaces. An analytical solution of this problem has been constructed for the case of action of the heat flow only. We have analyzed the dependence of contact pressure of the defect faces, temperature jump between them, and the intensity factor of tangential interfacial stresses on the value of given heat flow, roughness of the surfaces, and ratio between the shear moduli of joined materials.     

A computational framework of three dimensional configurational-force-driven crack propagation

A variational formulation of quasi-static brittle fracture is considered and a new finite-element-based computational framework is developed for propagation of cracks in three-dimensional bodies. We outline a consistent thermodynamical framework for crack propagation in elastic solids and show that the crack propagation direction associated with the classical Griffith criterion is identified by the material configurational force which maximizes the local dissipation at the crack front. The evolving crack discontinuity is realized by the doubling of critical nodes and triangular interface facets of the tetrahedral mesh. The crucial step for the success of the procedure is its embedding into an r-adaptive crack-facet reorientation procedure based on configurational-force-based indicators in conjunction with crack front constraints. We further propose a staggered algorithm which minimizes the stored energy at frozen crack state followed by the successive crack releases at frozen deformation. This constitutes a sequence of positive definite subproblems with successively decreasing overall stiffness, providing a very robust algorithmic setting in the postcritical range. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Out-of-plane displacement measurement near the crack tip during a crack propagation: Validation of a 3D formulation for a specimen in PMMA loaded in mode I.

The fundamental aim of this study is the determination zone of the 3D effects and the transient one at the vicinity of the crack tip during a crack propagation in brittle materials ( PMMA ) using an optical method (Michelson interferometer). With the obtained interferograms, we can extract the phase (thus the relief) by using a new numerical approach based on the principle of images correlation between real fringes and virtual fringes. Different dynamic tests are realized by a plate loaded in mode I under a constant loading. We compare the obtained data with the two-dimensional theory of Westergaard (plane stress hypothesis) [1]. With the divergence is established, we propose a new 3D formulation, based on a formulation employed for static crack, which takes into account 3D and transient effects. For the static cracks, the 3D effects relate to a presence of the state of three-dimensional stresses. However in dynamics, the transient effects appear and are related to the crack propagation velocity. The 3D effects and transient effects lead to results equivalent to experimental ones in terms of displacement but are completely different to results given by the two-dimensional theory near the crack tip. It is possible to quantify the zone when the plane stress hypothesis is not valid according to the crack propagation speed V. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Mathematical model of an internal crack in an elastoplastic cylindrical shell

We propose a mathematical model that makes it possible to reduce the problem of the stressed state and limit equilibrium of a cylindrical anisotropic elastoplastic shell with internal crack to a system of nonlinear singular integral equations with discontinuous functions on the right-hand sides. We construct an algorithm for numerical solution of such systems together with the conditions of plasticity and boundedness of stresses near the crack. For a transversally isotropic shell, we carry out a numerical analysis of the dependence of the opening of the internal crack front on the load and geometric and mechanical parameters. Pidstryhach Institute of Applied Problems in Mechanics and Mathematics, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences L'viv. Translated from Matematychni Metody ta Fizyko-Mekhanichni Polya, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 111–116, April–June, 1998     

First crack strength of ferrocement in flexure

Methods based on classical lamination theory have been developed for calculating the bending stiffness and stresses in individual layers, as well as predicting the influence of the synergetic effect on the first crack strength in ferrocement. These methods take into account the arrangement and geometry of meshes and the mechanical properties of components.Riga Technical University, LV-1047 Latvia. Published in Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 489–495, July–August, 1997.     

Dynamic crack propagation in a 2D elastic body. The out-of plane case

We discuss the propagation of a running crack under shear waves in a rigorous mathematical way for a simplified model. This model is described by two coupled equations in the actual configuration: a two-dimensional scalar wave equation in a cracked bounded domain and an ordinary differential equation derived from an energy balance law. The unknowns are the displacement fields u = u (y, t) and the one-dimensional crack tip trajectory h = h (t). We handle both equations separately, assuming at first that the crack position is known. Existence and uniqueness of strong solutions of the wave equation are studied and the crack-tip singularities are derived under the assumption that the crack is straight and moves tangentially. Using an energy balance law and the crack tip behaviour of the displacement fields we finally arrive at an ordinary differential equation for h (t), called equation of motion for the crack tip. We demonstrate the crack-tip motion with corresponding nonuniformly crack speed by numerical simulations. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

3D modeling of crack growth in electro-magneto-thermo-elastic coupled viscoplastic multiphase composites

This work presents a time-domain hypersingular integral equation (TD-HIE) method for modeling 3D crack growth in electro-magneto-thermo-elastic coupled viscoplastic multiphase composites (EMTE-CVP-MCs) under extended incremental loads rate through intricate theoretical analysis and numerical simulations. Using Green’s functions, the extended general incremental displacement rate solutions are obtained by time-domain boundary element method. Three-dimensional arbitrary crack growth problem in EMTE-CVP-MCs is reduced to solving a set of TD-HIEs coupled with boundary integral equations, in which the unknown functions are the extended incremental displacement discontinuities gradient. Then, the behavior of the extended incremental displacement discontinuities gradient around the crack front terminating at the interface is analyzed by the time-domain main-part analysis method of TD-HIE. Also, analytical solutions of the extended singular incremental stresses gradient and extended incremental integral near the crack fronts in EMTE-CVP-MCs are provided. In addition, a numerical method of the TD-HIE for a 3D crack subjected to extended incremental loads rate is put forward with the extended incremental displacement discontinuities gradient approximated by the product of time-domain basic density functions and polynomials. Finally, examples are presented to demonstrate the application of the proposed method.     

On crack propagation shapes in elastic bodies

We consider a two dimensional elastic isotropic body with a curvilinear crack. The formula for the derivative of the energy functional with respect to the crack length is discussed. It is proved that this derivative is independent of the crack path provided that we consider quite smooth crack propagation shapes. An estimate for the derivative of the energy functional being uniform with respect to the crack propagation shape is derived.     

On crack propagation shapes in elastic bodies

We consider a two dimensional elastic isotropic body with a curvilinear crack. The formula for the derivative of the energy functional with respect to the crack length is discussed. It is proved that this derivative is independent of the crack path provided that we consider quite smooth crack propagation shapes. An estimate for the derivative of the energy functional being uniform with respect to the crack propagation shape is derived.     

Global approaches for accurate loading analyses and crack path predictions at single and two-cracks systems

Based on the work by Eshelby, the path-independent J_k-, M-, L- and interaction- or I_k-integrals were introduced and applied to cracks for the accurate calculation of crack tip loading quantities. Applying the FE-method to solve boundary value problems with cracks, numerically inaccurate values are observed within the crack tip region affecting the accuracy of local approaches. Simulating crack paths, local approaches face further problems as cracks are running towards interfaces, internal boundaries or other crack faces. Within global approaches, path-independent integrals are calculated along remote contours far from the crack tip, essentially exploiting numerically reliable data requiring special treatment only for the near-tip crack faces. To provide path-independence, additional integrals along interfaces, internal boundaries and crack faces are necessary. In this paper, new global approaches of path-independent integrals are presented and applied to the calculation of crack paths at two-cracks systems. A second focus is directed to the accurate loading analysis and crack path prediction considering anisotropic properties and material interfaces. The numerical model provides crack paths which are in good agreement with those obtained from crack growth experiments. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Kinetics of crack growth in polymers during repeated loading with a small number of cycles

We have shown that crack propagation, especially in its initial stage, is greatly inhibited by the deformation process involved in hardening. It was established that loading repeated at intervals leads to a brief increase in crack-propagation rate during each loading period, as a result of the development of excessive stresses and the heating effect at the crack apex caused by the finite rate of the relaxation processes.A. F. Ioffe Physicotechnical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Leningrad. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 2, pp. 247–251, March–April, 1972.     

Influence of initial stresses on fracture of composite materials containing interacting cracks

Considered in this study are the axially-symmetric problems of fracture of composite materials with interacting cracks, which are subjected to initial (residual) stresses acting along the cracks planes. An analytical approach within the framework of three-dimensional linearized mechanics of solids is used. Two geometric schemes of cracks location are studied: a circular crack is located parallel to the surface of a semi-infinite composite with initial stresses, and two parallel co-axial penny-shaped cracks are contained in an infinite composite material with initial stresses. The cracks are assumed to be under a normal or a radial shear load. Analysis involves reducing the problems to systems of second-kind Fredholm integral equations, where the solutions are identified with harmonic potential functions. Representations of the stress intensity factors near the cracks edges are obtained. These stress intensity factors are influenced by the initial stresses. The presence of the free boundary and the interaction between cracks has a significant effect on the stress intensity factors as well. The parameters of fracture for two types of composites (a laminar composite made of aluminum/boron/silicate glass with epoxy-maleic resin and a carbon/plastic composite with stochastic reinforcement by short ellipsoidal carbon fibers) are analyzed numerically. The dependence of the stress intensity factors on the initial stresses, physical-mechanical parameters of the composites, and the geometric parameters of the problem are investigated.