Dislocation shielding of a cohesive crack

Dislocation interaction with a cohesive crack is of increasing importance to computational modelling of crack nucleation/growth and related toughening mechanisms in confined structures and under cyclic fatigue conditions. Here, dislocation shielding of a Dugdale cohesive crack described by a rectangular traction-separation law is studied. The shielding is completely characterized by three non-dimensional parameters representing the effective fracture toughness, the cohesive strength, and the distance between the dislocations and the crack tip. A closed form analytical solution shows that, while the classical singular crack model predicts that a dislocation can shield or anti-shield a crack depending on the sign of its Burgers vector, at low cohesive strengths a dislocation always shields the cohesive crack irrespective of the Burgers vector. A numerical study shows the transition in shielding from the classical solution of Lin and Thomson (1986) in the high strength limit to the solution in the low strength limit. An asymptotic analysis yields an approximate analytical model for the shielding over the full range of cohesive strengths. A discrete dislocation (DD) simulation of a large (>10³) number of edge dislocations interacting with a cohesive crack described by a trapezoidal traction-separation law confirms the transition in shielding, showing that the cohesive crack does behave like a singular crack at very high cohesive strengths (∼7 GPa), but that significant deviations in shielding between singular and cohesive crack predictions arise at cohesive strengths around 1GPa, consistent with the analytic models. Both analytical and numerical studies indicate that an appropriate crack tip model is essential for accurately quantifying dislocation shielding for cohesive strengths in the GPa range.     

Crack kinking in sandwich structures under three-point bending

Sandwich beams under three-point bending containing cracks in the core material very close to the upper skin interface are investigated. The cracks considered parallel or with an imperceptible inclination to the longitudinal beam axis and at different distances from the upper skin interface, are analyzed with static non-linear elastic two and three dimensional finite element analyses. From the proposed analyses stress intensity factors are calculated using linear elastic fracture mechanics. It is demonstrated that the crack propagation on the compression side of the core is mainly subjected in shear. The strain energy density criterion is used in order to determine the angle of kinking of the crack into the core.     

A hybrid analytical–numerical solution for 3D notched plates

This study used a hybrid analytical and numerical method to analyze three-dimensional (3D) elastic bodies with sharp-V notches. The proposed method separates the 3D equilibrium equation into primary and shadow parts, where the solution of the primary part is the analytical solution under the generalized plane-strain theory, and the shadow part is solved numerically using a weak form based on the finite element theory. A least-squares method is then used to find the multiplication factors of these primary and shadow modes using 3D finite element results. Numerical simulations indicate that the proposed method can accurately simulate the singularities near a sharp V-notch. The major advantage of this method is that a 3D whole displacement field with the singular effect based on the theoretical solution near the notch can be obtained for anisotropic materials under arbitrary loads.     

A Crack with an Electric Displacement Saturation Zone in an Electrostrictive Material

A crack with an electric displacement saturation zone in an electrostrictive material under purely electric loading is analyzed. A strip saturation model is here employed to investigate the effect of the electrical polarization saturation on electric fields and elastic fields. A closed form solution of electric fields and elastic fields for the crack with the strip saturation zone is obtained by using the complex function theory. It is found that the K _I -dominant region is very small compared to the strip saturation zone. The generalized Dugdale zone model is also employed in order to investigate the effect of the saturation zone shape on the stress intensity factor. Using the body force analogy, the stress intensity factor for the asymptotic problem of a crack with an elliptical saturation zone is evaluated numerically.     

Development of a distributed dislocation dipole technique for the analysis of multiple straight,kinked and branched cracks in an elastic half-plane

A distributed dislocation dipole technique for the analysis of multiple straight, kinked and branched cracks in an elastic half plane has been developed. The dipole density distribution is represented with a weighted Jacobi polynomial expansion where the weight function captures the asymptotic behaviour at each end of the crack. To allow for opening and sliding at crack kinking and branching the dipole density representation contains conditional extra terms which fulfills the asymptotic behaviour at each endpoint. Several test cases involving straight, kinked and branched cracks have been analysed, and the results suggest that the accuracy of the method is within 1% provided that Jacobi polynomial expansions up to at least the sixth order are used. Adopting even higher order Jacobi polynomials yields improved accuracy. The method is compared to a simplified procedure suggested in the literature where stress singularities associated with corners at kinking or branching are neglected in the representation for the dipole density distribution. The comparison suggests that both procedures work, but that the current procedure is superior, in as much as the same accuracy is reached using substantially lower order polynomial expansions.     

High temperature strength and failure of the Ni-base superalloy PM 3030

The strength, fatigue life and fracture behavior of the oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) nickel-base superalloy PM 3030 are investigated. The high Al content in PM 3030 leads to the formation of coherent γ′ particles and, thus, to additional precipitation strengthening. A coarse and elongated grain structure (R34) and two isotropic batches with mean grain sizes of 1 μm (R90) and 17 μm (R901315) are considered. Compressive constant strain rate tests and high cycle fatigue (HCF) tests are performed. Optical, scanning and transmission electron microscopy (OM, SEM and TEM) are carried out. The properties are compared with those of the solely oxide dispersion strengthened Ni-base alloy PM 1000 [Estrin, Y., Heilmaier, M., Drew, G., 1999. Creep properties of an oxide dispersion strengthened nickel-base alloy: the effect of grain orientation and grain aspect ratio. Mater. Sci. Eng. A 272(1), 163–173]. It is found that additional γ′ hardening provides an increase in quasi-static strength by about a factor 2 and in HCF life by about a factor 10²–10³ at temperatures up to 850 °C. When fatigue life is compared at a fixed ratio of stress amplitude-to-yield or ultimate compressive strength, R34 shows a fatigue life similar to that of PM 1000 at lower temperature (e.g. 600 °C) indicating that the quasi-static strength advantage is proportionally translated into improved fatigue performance; for higher temperatures (850 °C) however, R34 shows a shorter fatigue life as compared to PM 1000. Grain size reduction, as exemplified with the fine grain R90 batch, also provides an increase in strength up to the equicohesion temperature (T_E) [Dieter, G.E., 1986. Mechanical Metallurgy. SI Metric ed. McGraw-Hill Book Company, London]. Above T_E, faster diffusion and grain boundary sliding [Raj, R., Ashby, M.F., 1971. On the grain boundary sliding and diffusional creep. Metall. Trans. 2, 1113–1127; Spingarn, J.R., Nix, W.D., 1978. Diffusional creep and diffusionally accommodated grain rearrangement. Acta Metall. 26, 1389–1398] lead to a drastic drop in strength for the R90 material. In contrast, the batch with intermediate grain size (R901315) shows strength comparable to that of R34 up to 850 °C. Furthermore, R901315 shows improved crack tolerance compared to its coarse grain counterpart R34. Due to premature crack initiating coarse oxide particles however, R901315 does not show any improvement in elongation to failure during tensile tests. Eliminating those coarse particles is expected to improve the ductility and toughness of this isotropic batch.     

On the asymptotic crack-tip stress fields in nonlocal orthotropic elasticity

The crack-tip stress fields in orthotropic bodies are derived within the framework of Eringen’s nonlocal elasticity via the Green’s function method. The modified Bessel function of second kind and order zero is considered as the nonlocal kernel. We demonstrate that if the localisation residuals are neglected, as originally proposed by Eringen, the asymptotic stress tensor and its normal derivative are continuous across the crack. We prove that the stresses attained at the crack tip are finite in nonlocal orthotropic continua for all the three fracture modes (I, II and III). The relative magnitudes of the stress components depend on the material orthotropy. Moreover, non-zero self-balanced tractions exist on the crack edges for both isotropic and orthotropic continua. The special case of a mode I Griffith crack in a nonlocal and orthotropic material is studied, with the inclusion of the T-stress term.     

Crack shielding and material deterioration in damaged materials: an antiplane shear fracture problem

Summary A simple damage evolution model is proposed for a quasibrittle material in the framework of continuum damage mechanics. The model is used to obtain a closed form solution for a mode-III stationary crack under small scale damage conditions. It is found that the crack tip stress intensity factor is reduced, i.e., the crack is shielded by the damage. However, this shielding effect is completely offset by the material deterioration caused by the damage. It also holds for steady state crack growth. When the most effective shielding is reached for the stationary crack, the zone dominated by the stress intensity factor shrinks to the crack tip. The results for the antiplane shear problem should shed some light on the in- plane fracture problem. Received 4 August 1997; accepted for publication 7 October 1997     

Crack initiation and direction for circumferential periodic cracks in pipe under tension and torsion

The S-theory is applied to determine crack initiation angle and critical load of circumferential periodic cracks in pipe. A technique for determining mode II stress intensity factor is proposed by using G^* path independent integral. The method applies also to single-edge crack, double-edge crack and center crack cylindrical panel configurations.     

Determination of stress intensity factor with direct stress approach using finite element analysis

In this article,a direct stress approach based on finite element analysis to determine the stress intensity fac-tor is improved.Firstly,by comparing the rigorous solution against the asymptotic solution for a problem of an infinite plate embedded a central crack,we found that the stresses in a restrictive interval near the crack tip given by the rigorous solution can be used to determine the stress intensity fac-tor,which is nearly equal to the stress intensity factor given by the asymptotic solution.Secondly,the crack problem is solved numerically by the finite element method.Depending on the modeling capability of the software,we designed an adaptive mesh model to simulate the stress singularity.Thus, the stress result in an appropriate interval near the crack tip is fairly approximated to the rigorous solution of the corre-sponding crack problem.Therefore,the stress intensity factor may be calculated from the stress distribution in the appro-priate interval,with a high accuracy.     

A Long Crack Penetrating a Circular Inhomogeneity

This paper presents the effects of elastic mismatch and crack-tip position on the stress intensity factors of a long crack penetrating a circular inhomogeneity. The analysis relies on closed-form solutions, derived using complex variable techniques, for the stresses and displacements produced by dislocations positioned inside and outside the inhomogeneity. Dislocation distributions are introduced to express the traction boundary condition along the crack surfaces as a system of singular integral equations, whose solution is obtained through a numerical procedure. It is shown that if the elastic mismatch is interpreted correctly, then the stress intensity factors of this micromechanical model are very good approximations to those computed using a Monte Carlo finite element model of a long crack in a polycrystalline plate with compliant grain boundaries.     

Functionally graded penny-shaped cracks under dynamic loading

Dynamic load is applied to a functionally graded material with penny-shaped cracks. The materials are also transversely isotropic depending only on the axial coordinate z. The elastic region may be regarded to consist of many thin layers such that properties are constants within each layer, but they may vary from layer to layer. Laplace and Hankel transform are used in conjunction with the stiffness matrix approach. The Dual integral equations are then obtained by application of appropriate boundary and interface conditions. Stress intensity factors are then determined in the Laplace transform domain. Inversion yields the results in the time domain. Numerical examples show that multiple crack configurations in functionally graded materials can be treated where the continuously varied material properties can be divided into a finite number of layers with different properties.     

Crack movement in layered composites under electric field affect

The variation principle is applied for defining a crack in the solid body. The methods proposed in [G. Sih, C. Chen, Non-self-similar crack growth in elastic–plastic finite thickness plate, Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 3 (1985) 125–139] extend to presence of electromagnetic fields in material. Crack propagation in non-homogeneous media has been considered. It is shown that electromagnetic fields in the material are essentially affecting the trajectory. The crack trajectory stability has been studied as function of fracture energy, phase portraits of the trajectory in different media have been built, and various attractor types have been revealed. Different crack morphologies from single straight and oscillating crack propagation to straight double crack propagation were theoretically founded. In compliance with the experimental data of [R. Niefanger, V.-B. Pham, G. Schneider, H.-A. Bahr, H. Balke, U. Bahr, Quasi-static straight and oscillatory crack propagation in ferroelectric ceramics due to moving electric field: experiments and theory, Acta Materialia 52 (1) (2004) 117–127], it has been demonstrated that periodic electromagnetic field results in trajectory stochastization. This can be used for switching the crack over from the mode of mainline propagation into the mode of development of the field of diffused microcracks.     

Anti-plane interaction of a crack and reinforced elliptic hole in an infinite matrix

Anti-plane interaction of a crack with a coated elliptical hole embedded in an infinite matrix under a remote uniform shear load is considered in this paper. Analytical treatment of the present problem is laborious due to the presence of material inhomogeneities and geometric discontinuities. Nevertheless, based on the technique of conformal mapping and the method of analytical continuation in conjunction with the alternating technique, general expressions for displacements and stresses in the coated layer and the matrix are derived explicitly in closed form. By applying the existing complex function solutions for a dislocation, the integral equations for a line crack are formulated and mode-III stress intensity factors are obtained numerically. Some numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effects of material inhomogeneity and geometric discontinuities on mode-III stress intensity factors.     

功能梯度压电材料反平面裂纹问题

基于三维弹性理论和压电理论，导出了材料系数在横观各向同性平面内梯度分布的压电体的状态方程，进而对材料系数指数函数规律分布的半无限大压电体中的反平面裂纹问题进行了求解，利用Fourier变换给出了半无限大压电体中位移，应力，电势及电位移的解析表达式，并求得了裂纹尖端的应力强度因子和电位移强度因子，分析了不同的非均匀材料系数及几何尺寸对它们的影响。     

The effect of an elastic triangular inclusion on a crack

IntroductionWiththedevelopmentofparticleandfiberreinforcedcomposites,theinclusion_crackinteractionproblemisbecominganimportantfieldbeingstudied .Andasamodel,itisalsousedtostudytheeffectsofmaterialdefectsonthestrengthandfractureofengineeringstructure.TheinterationbetweencircularinclusionandcrackwasstudiedinRefs.[1 -6 ] ;InRefs.[7-1 2 ] ,theinterationbetweenlineinclusionandcrackswasdiscussed ;TheinterationbetweenellipticalinclusionandcrackwasstudiedinRefs.[1 3,1 4] .However,withthedevelopmento…     

SIF-based fracture criterion for interface cracks

The complex stress intensity factor K governing the stress field of an interface crack tip may be split into two parts, i.e.,■ and s~(-iε), so that K = ■ s~(-iε), s is a characteristic length and ε is the oscillatory index. ■ has the same dimension as the classical stress intensity factor and characterizes the interface crack tip field. That means a criterion for interface cracks may be formulated directly with■, as Irwin(ASME J. Appl. Mech. 24:361–364, 1957) did in 1957 for the classical fracture mechanics. Then, for an interface crack,it is demonstrated that the quasi Mode I and Mode II tip fields can be defined and distinguished from the coupled mode tip fields. Built upon SIF-based fracture criteria for quasi Mode I and Mode II, the stress intensity factor(SIF)-based fracture criterion for mixed mode interface cracks is proposed and validated against existing experimental results.     

Observation of Stress Field Around an Oscillating Crack Tip in a Quenched Thin Glass Plate

The variation of stress field around an oscillating crack tip in a quenched thin glass plate is observed using instantaneous phase-stepping photoelasticity. The successive images around the propagating crack are recorded by a CCD camera that is equipped with a pixelated micro-retarder array. Then, the phase maps of the principal stress difference and the principal direction are easily obtained even though the photoelastic fringes cannot be visualized. The path of the crack growth as well as the stress intensity factors and the crack tip constraint are obtained from these phase distributions. Results show that the mode I stress intensity factor and the crack tip constraint vary remarkably with the crack growth. In addition, the results show that the mode-II stress intensity factor exists even though the crack propagates smoothly.     

Crack problem for superconducting strip with finite thickness

The inclined crack problems are considered for a thin strip and a strip with finite thickness in a perpendicular magnetic field. The critical current density is assumed to be a constant. The crack orientation is varied and the effect of crack on the magnetic field distribution is neglected. Based on the analytical results and variational inequality, the field and current distributions are computed for both thin strip and strip with finite thickness cases, respectively. Then, the stress intensity factors at the crack tip are determined using the finite element method for magnetic field loads. The numerical results are presented for different inclined crack angles, magnetization processes and geometry parameters of the strip. The results show that the fracture behavior of the strip with finite thickness is more complicated than that of the thin strip. With the numerical results, we can predict the largest possibility of cracking as the strip is in an external field.     

Rate effects on toughness in elastic nonlinear viscous solids

A micromechanics-based constitutive relation for void growth in a nonlinear viscous solid is proposed to study rate effects on fracture toughness. This relation is incorporated into a microporous strip of cell elements embedded in a computational model for crack growth. The microporous strip is surrounded by an elastic nonlinear viscous solid referred to as the background material. Under steady-state crack growth, two dissipative processes contribute to the macroscopic fracture toughness—the work of separation in the strip of cell elements and energy dissipation by inelastic deformation in the background material. As the crack velocity increases, voids grow in the strain-rate strengthened microporous strip, thereby elevating the work of separation. In contrast, the energy dissipation in the background material decreases as the crack velocity increases. In the regime where the work of separation dominates energy dissipation, toughness increases with crack velocity. In the regime where energy dissipation is dominant, toughness decreases with crack velocity. Computational simulations show that the two regimes can exist in certain range of crack velocities for a given material. The existence of these regimes is greatly influenced by the rate dependence of the void growth mechanism (and the initial void size) as well as that of the bulk material. This competition between the two dissipative processes produces a U-shaped toughness-crack velocity curve. Our computational simulations predict trends that agree with fracture toughness vs. crack velocity data reported in several experimental studies for glassy polymers and rubber-modified epoxies.