Asymptotic Stress Field in a Degenerate Orthotropic Material Containing a Cohesive Zone ahead of a Crack Tip

Complex variable and eigenfunction expansion methods are used to derive elastic stress fields near the cohesive zone of a crack aligned with principal axes of a degenerate orthotropic material. Asymptotic field terms are obtained using coordinate rescaling and transformation techniques. The stress fields do not have stress singularity. Variations of stress components associated with the first-order or dominant stress terms are discussed in detail.      

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.     

疲劳裂纹闭合研究的进展

本文阐述了疲劳裂纹闭合的四种诱发机制,介绍了疲劳裂纹闭合现象测量的几种方法并结合作者的工作进行了评述.文中详细地介绍和探讨了材料、应力比、试样几何尺寸、环境及载荷谱等因素对裂纹闭合现象的影响,指出了目前研究工作中存在的问题.并对今后开展研究工作的方向提出了看法.     

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     

Modified boundary layer analysis of an electrode in an electrostrictive material

A thin electrode embedded in an electrostrictive material under electric loading is investigated. In order to obtain an asymptotic form of electric fields and elastic fields near the electrode edge, we consider a modified boundary layer problem of an electrode in an electrostrictive material under the small scale saturation condition. The exact electric solution for the electrode is obtained by using the complex function theory. It is found that the shape of the electric displacement saturation zone is sensitive to the transverse electric displacement. A perturbation solution of stress fields induced by incompatible electrostrictive strains for the small value of the transverse electric displacement is obtained. The influence of transverse electric displacement on a microcrack initiation from the electrode edge is also discussed.     

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。     

Simulation of edge dislocation emission from a crack under in-plane shear

Considered is the tandem emission of dislocations and dislocation dipoles from a crack under in-plane shear in one slip system as well as multiple slip systems. Effective stress intensity factors are determined by considering zones of local distortion similar to that in macro-plasticity. The dislocation free zone (DFZ) is also obtained which is analogous to the core region in fracture mechanics. Studied are effects of dislocation emission or development of plastic zone in front of the crack tip on the potential crack propagation based on the strain energy density factor criterion.     

A special crack tip displacement discontinuity element

Based on the analytical solution to the problem of a constant discontinuity in displacement over a finite line segment in the x, y plane of an infinite elastic solid and the note of the crack tip element by Crouch, in the present paper, the special crack tip displacement discontinuity element is developed. Further the analytical formulas for the stress intensity factors of crack problems in general plane elasticity are given. In the boundary element implementation the special crack tip displacement discontinuity element is placed locally at each crack tip on top of the non-singular constant displacement discontinuity elements that cover the entire crack surface. Numerical results show that the displacement discontinuity modeling technique of a crack presented in this paper is very effective.     

Interaction of an Ellipsoidal Inclusion with an Elliptic Crack in an Elastic Material under Triaxial Tension

The interaction of an elastic ellipsoidal inclusion with an elliptic crack in an infinite elastic medium under triaxial loading is analyzed. The stress state in the elastic space is represented as a superposition of the principal state and perturbed states, which are due to the presence and interaction of the inclusion and the crack. The analytical solution of the problem is found using the method of equivalent inclusion, the potential of an inhomogeneous ellipsoid, and a system of harmonic functions for an elliptic crack. The effect of triaxial loading on the stress intensity factors is analyzed     

A numerical analysis of perpendicular cracks under general in-plane loading with a hybrid displacement discontinuity method

In this paper, a numerical analysis of perpendicular cracks under general in-plane loading is performed by using a hybrid displacement discontinuity method which consists of the non-singular displacement discontinuity element presented by Crouch and Starfied and the crack tip displacement discontinuity elements by the author. In the boundary element implementation the left or the right crack tip displacement discontinuity element is placed locally at corresponding left or right crack tip on top of the ordinary non-singular displacement discontinuity elements that cover the entire crack surface and the other boundary. The present numerical results show that the numerical approach is simple, yet very accurate for calculating numerically stress intensity factors for perpendicular cracks under general in-plane loading.     

Unsteady Dynamic Crack Propagation in a Brittle Polymer

Dynamic crack propagation in a brittle polymer, poly(methyl-methacrylate) (PMMA), was studied using the method of caustics in combination with a Cranz–Schardin high-speed camera. Four different types of specimen geometry and loading method were employed to achieve the crack acceleration, deceleration, and/or reacceleration processes in one fracture event. The dynamic stress intensity factor K _ID and crack velocity were obtained in the course of the crack propagation and the corresponding relationship was determined. The effect of the crack acceleration and deceleration on the K _ID-velocity relationships was as follows: (1) the variations of K _ID and the velocity were strongly influenced by the specimen geometry and loading method; (2) the velocity change was qualitatively in accord with K _ID; (3) K _ID for a constant crack velocity was larger when the crack decelerated than it was when the crack accelerated or reaccelerated; (4) K _ID for an acceleration-free crack was uniquely related to the velocity; and (5) K _ID could be expressed as two parametric functions of the velocity and acceleration.     

Anti-plane problem of periodic cracks in a functionally graded coating–substrate structure

The static and dynamic anti-plane problem for a functionally graded coating–substrate structure containing a periodic array of parallel cracks, which are perpendicular to the boundary, is considered. Integral-transform techniques are employed to reduce the problem to the solution of an integral equation with hypersingular kernels. Numerical results are presented to show the influence of geometry, material properties and material gradient parameter on the fracture behavior.     

On interface crack models with contact zones situated in an anisotropic bimaterial

Summary A boundary value problem for two semi-infinite anisotropic spaces with mixed boundary conditions at the interface is considered. Assuming that the displacements are independent of the coordinate x ₃, stresses and derivatives of displacement jumps are expressed via a sectionally holomorphic vector function. By means of these relations the problem for an interface crack with an artificial contact zone in an orthotropic bimaterial is reduced to a combined Dirichlet-Riemann problem which is solved analytically. As a particular case of this solution, the contact zone model (in Comninou's sense) is derived. A simple transcendental equation and an asymptotic formula for the determination of the real contact zone length are obtained. The classical interface crack model with oscillating singularities at the crack tips is derived from the obtained solution as well. Analytical relations between fracture mechanical parameters of different models are found, and recommendations concerning their implementation are given. The dependencies of the contact zone lengths on material properties and external load coefficients are illustrated in graphical form. The practical applicability of the obtained results is demonstrated by means of a FEM analysis of a finite-sized orthotropic bimaterial with an interface crack. Received 19 October 1998; accepted for publication 13 November 1998     

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.     

Analytical solution for bending stress intensity factor in an orthotropic elastic plate containing a crack and subjected to concentrated moments

The problem of estimating the bending stress distribution in the neighborhood of a crack located on a single line in an orthotropic elastic plate of constant thickness subjected to out-of-plane concentrated moments is examined. Using classical plate theory and integral transform techniques, the general formulae for the bending moment and twisting moment in an elastic plate containing cracks located on a single line are derived. The solution is obtained in a closed form for the case in which there is a single crack in an infinite plate subjected to symmetric concentrated moments.     

A cracked sliding interface between anisotropic bimaterials

A general solution for the stresses and displacements of a cracked sliding interface between anisotropic bimaterials subjected to uniform tensile stress at infinity is given by using the Stroh’s formulation. Horizontal and vertical opening displacements on the interface, stress intensity factors, and energy release rate are expressed in real form, which are valid for any kind of anisotropic materials including the degenerate materials such as isotropic materials. It is observed that stresses exhibit the traditional inverse square root singularities near the crack tips, and the vertical opening displacement and energy release rate are intimately related to a real parameter λ determined by the elastic constants of the anisotropic bimaterials.     

Dynamic response of a crack in a functionally graded interface of two dissimilar piezoelectric half-planes

Summary  In this paper, the dynamic anti-plane crack problem of two dissimilar homogeneous piezoelectric materials bonded through a functionally graded interfacial region is considered. Integral transforms are employed to reduce the problem to Cauchy singular integral equations. Numerical results illustrate the effect of the loading combination parameter λ, material property distribution and crack configuration on the dynamic stress and electric displacement intensity factors. It is found that the presence of the dynamic electric field could impede of enhance the crack propagation depending on the time elapsed and the direction of applied electric impact. Received 4 December 2001; accepted for publication 9 July 2002 This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China through Grant No. 10132010.     

Elastic wave scattering from a penny-shaped interface crack in coated materials

This paper is concerned with the elastic wave scattering induced by a penny-shaped interface crack in coated materials. Using the integral transform, the problem of wave scattering is reduced to a set of singular integral equations in matrix form. The singular integral equations are solved by the asymptotic analysis and contour integral technique, and the expressions for the stress and displacement as well as the dynamic stress intensity factors (SIFs) are obtained. Using numerical analysis, this approach is verified by the finite element method (FEM), and the numerical results agree well with the theoretical results. For various crack sizes and material combinations, the relations between the SIFs and the incident frequency are analyzed, and the amplitudes of the crack opening displacements (CODs) are plotted versus incident wavenumber. The investigation provides a theoretical basis for the dynamic failure analysis and nondestructive evaluation of coated materials.     

Material plasticity dependence of mixed mode fatigue crack growth in commonly used engineering materials

In this paper, an investigation of fatigue crack propagation in rectangular plates containing an inclined surface crack is presented. A criterion for the three-dimensional stress state is proposed to predict fatigue crack initiation angles. It is assumed that the direction of crack initiation coincides with the direction of the minimum radius of the plastic zone defined by the von Mises yield criterion. The maximum energy release rate criterion, i.e., G_max criterion, is extended to study the fatigue crack growth characteristics of mixed mode cracks. A modification has been made to this criterion to implement the consideration of the plastic strain energy. Subsequently, this concept is applied to predict crack growth due to fatigue loads. Experiments for checking the theoretical predictions from the proposed criterion have been conducted. The results obtained are compared with those obtained using the commonly employed fracture criteria and the test data.     

Characterization of strongly interacted multiple cracks in an infinite plate

Based on the Kachanov method and the alternating iteration technique, a new method is proposed to deal with the problem of the strongly interacted multiple cracks in an infinite plate. Unlike the Kachanov method which neglects the interaction of the tractions of the non-uniform components, the tractions of the non-uniform components on the surfaces of cracks are considered through the alternating technique. The accuracy and efficiency of present method are validated by comparing the results of two collinear and two parallel overlapped open the cracks obtained by the present method with those of the exact solutions, the results of the Kachanov method and the alternating iteration technique. Applications of present method in solving sliding close crack problems and evaluating the plastic zones demonstrate the versatility of present method.