Stress intensity factors for asymmetric branched cracks in plane extension by using crack-tip displacement discontinuity elements

Stress intensity factors are important in the analysis of cracked materials. They are directly related to the fracture propagation and fatigue crack growth criteria. Based on the analytical solution (Crouch, S.L., 1976. Solution of plane elasticity problems by displacement discontinuity method, Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng. 10, pp. 301–343; Crouch, S.L., Starfield, A.M., 1983. Boundary Element Method in Solid Mechanics, with Application in Rock Mechanics and Geological Mechanics, London, Geore Allon and Unwin, Bonton, Sydney) to the problem of a constant discontinuity in displacement over a finite line segment in the x, y plane of an infinite elastic solid, recently, the crack-tip displacement discontinuity element which can be classified as the left and right crack-tip displacement discontinuity elements are developed by the author Yan, X., (in press. A special crack-tip displacement discontinuity element, Mechanics Research Communications) to model the crack-tip fields to more accurately compute the stress intensity factors of cracks in general plane elasticity. In the boundary element implementation the left or the right crack-tip displacement discontinuity element is placed locally at the 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 boundaries. To prove further the efficiency of the suggested approach and provide more results of the stress intensity factors, in this study, analysis of an asymmetric branched crack bifurcated from a main crack in plane extension is carried out.     

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.     

双轴载荷作用下源于椭圆孔的分支裂纹的一种边界元分析

利用一种边界元方法来研究双轴载荷作用下无限大板中源于椭圆孔的分支裂纹．该边界元方法由Crouch与Starfied建立的常位移不连续单元和笔者提出的裂尖位移不连续单元构成．在该边界元方法的实施过程中,左、右裂尖位移不连续单元分别置于裂纹的左、右裂尖处,而常位移不连续单元则分布于除了裂尖位移不连续单元占据的位置之外的整个裂纹面及其它边界,文中算例说明本数值方法对计算平面弹性裂纹的应力强度因子是非常有效的。该文对双轴载荷作用下无限大板中源于椭圆孔的分支裂纹的数值结果进一步证实本数值方法对计算复杂裂纹的应力强度因子的有效性,同时该数值结果可以揭示双轴载荷及裂纹体几何对应力强度因子的影响。     

The analysis of crack problems with non-local elasticity

IntroductionTheclassicalconhnuummechanicshasbeenusedtosolvemanyproblemsinmacrofracturemechanics,butencountersdifficulheswhentheeffectofITilcrocharacteristicdimensionshouldbetakenintoaccount.Thestressfieldverynearthecracktipisstillnotclear.Somephenomenaofshortcrackscannotbeexplained["']andsomemechanismoffracturehasnotbeensolvedyet.Thenon-localelashcitytheoryseemsattractivetotheseproblems.Thetheoryofnon-localelasticity,establishedanddevelopedbyEringenetal[3),connectstheclassicalcontinuummechan…     

An effective boundary element method for analysis of crack problems in a plane elastic plate

A simple and effective boundary element method for stress intensity factor calculation for crack problems in a plane elastic plate is presented. The boundary element method consists of the constant displacement discontinuity element presented by Crouch and Starfield and the crack-tip displacement discontinuity elements proposed by YAN Xiangqiao. In the boundary element implementation the left or the right crack-tip displacement discontinuity element was placed locally at the corresponding left or right each crack tip on top of the constant displacement discontinuity elements that cover the entire crack surface and the other boundaries. Test examples (i. e. , a center crack in an infinite plate under tension, a circular hole and a crack in an infinite plate under tension) are included to illustrate that the numerical approach is very simple and accurate for stress intensity factor calculation of plane elasticity crack problems. In addition, specifically, the stress intensity factors of branching cracks emanating from a square hole in a rectangular plate under biaxial loads were analysed. These numerical results indicate the present numerical approach is very effective for calculating stress intensity factors of complex cracks in a 2-D finite body, and are used to reveal the effect of the biaxial loads and the cracked body geometry on stress intensity factors.     

内部压力作用下矩形板中源于椭圆孔的分支裂纹应力强度因子的一种数值分析

应用一种边界元方法来研究内部压力作用下矩形板中源于椭圆孔的分支裂纹。该边界元方法由Crouch与Starfied建立的常位移不连续单元和笔者最近提出的裂尖位移不连续单元构成。在该边界元方法的实施过程中,左、右裂尖位移不连续单元分别置于裂纹的左、右裂尖处,而常位移不连续单元则分布于除了裂尖位移不连续单元占据的位置之外的整个裂纹面及其它边界。本数值结果进一步证实这种数值方法对计算有限大板中复杂裂纹的应力强度因子的有效性,同时该数值结果可以揭示裂纹体几何对应力强度因子的影响。     

A boundary element modeling of fatigue crack growth in a plane elastic plate

This paper presents an extension of a boundary element method to fatigue growth analysis of mixed-mode cracked plane elastic bodies. The method consists of the non-singular displacement discontinuity element presented by Crouch and Starfield and the crack-tip displacement discontinuity element due to the author. In the boundary element implementation the left or the right crack-tip element is placed locally at the corresponding left or right crack tip on top of non-singular displacement discontinuity elements that cover the entire crack surface and the other boundaries. Crack growth is simulated with an incremental crack extension analysis based on the modified maximum strain energy density criterion. In numerical simulation, for each increment of crack extension, remeshing of existing boundaries is not required because of an intrinsic feature of the boundary element method. Crack growth is simulated by adding new boundary elements on the incremental crack extension to the previous crack boundaries. At the same time, the element characters of some related elements are adjusted according to the manner in which the boundary element method is implemented. Some numerical results of fatigue growth in a plane elastic plate with a center-inclined crack under uniaxial cyclic loading are given.     

FATIGUE GROWTH MODELING OF MIXED-MODE CRACK IN PLANE ELASTIC MEDIA

This paper presents an extension of a displacement discontinuity method with cracktip elements （a boundary element method） proposed by the author for fatigue crack growth analysis in plane elastic media under mixed-mode conditions. The boundary element method consists of the non-singular displacement discontinuity elements presented by Crouch and Starfield and the crack-tip displacement discontinuity elements due to the author. In the boundary element implementation the left or right crack-tip element is placed locally at the corresponding left or right crack tip on top of the non-singular displacement discontinuity elements that cover the entire crack surface and the other boundaries. Crack growth is simulated with an incremental crack extension analysis based on the maximum circumferential stress criterion. In the numerical simulation, for each increment of crack extension, remeshing of existing boundaries is not required because of an intrinsic feature of the numerical approach. Crack growth is modeled by adding new boundary elements on the incremental crack extension to the previous crack boundaries. At the same time, the element characteristics of some related elements are adjusted according to the manner in which the boundary element method is implemented. As an example, the fatigue growth process of cracks emanating from a circular hole in a plane elastic plate is simulated using the numerical simulation approach.     

On the uses of special crack tip elements in numerical rock fracture mechanics

Numerical methods such as boundary element methods are widely used for the stress analysis in solid mechanics. These methods are also used for crack analysis in rock fracture mechanics. There are singularities for the stresses and displacements at the crack tips in fracture mechanics problem, which decrease the accuracy of the numerical results in areas very close to the crack ends. To overcome this, higher order elements and isoperimetric higher order elements have been used. Recently, special crack tip elements have been proposed and used in most of the numerical fracture mechanics models. These elements can drastically increase the accuracy of the results near the crack tips, but in most of the models only one special crack tip element has been used for each crack end. In this study the uses of higher order crack tip elements are discussed and a higher order displacement discontinuity method is used to investigate the effect of these elements on the accuracy of the results in some crack problems. The useful shape functions for two special crack tip elements, are derived and given in the text and appendix for both infinite and semi-infinite plane problems. In this analysis both Mode I and Mode II stress intensity factors are computed . Some example problems are solved and the computed results are compared with the results given in the literature. The numerical results obtained here are in good agreement with those cited in the literature. For the curved crack problem, the strain energy release rate, G can be calculated accurately in the vicinity of the crack tips by using the higher order displacement discontinuity method with a quadratic variation of displacement discontinuity elements and with two special crack tip elements at each crack end.     

The G2 constant displacement discontinuity method – Part I: Solution of plane crack problems

A new constant displacement discontinuity element was presented in a previous paper applied initially for the numerical solution of either isolated straight cracks or for co-linear cracks of the three fundamental deformation modes I, II and III due to the special form of the solution. It was based on the strain-gradient elasticity theory in its simplest possible Grade-2 variant. The assumption of the G2 expression for the stresses has resulted to a better average stress value at the mid-point of the straight displacement discontinuity compared to the classical elasticity solution. This new element gave considerably better predictions of the stress intensity factors compared to the constant displacement discontinuity element and the linear displacement discontinuity element. Moreover, it preserved the simplicity and hence the high speed of computations. In this Part I, the solution for this element is extended for the analysis of cracks of arbitrary shape in an infinite plane isotropic elastic body and it is validated against three known analytical solutions.     

A numerical analysis of cracks emanating from an elliptical hole in a 2-D elasticity plate

This paper is concerned with the stress intensity factors (SIFs) of cracks emanating from an elliptical hole in an infinite or a finite plate under biaxial loads by using a boundary element method, which consists of the non-singular displacement discontinuity element presented by Crouch and Starfield and the crack-tip displacement discontinuity elements due to the author. In the boundary element implementation the left or the right crack-tip element is placed locally at the corresponding left or right crack tip on top of the constant displacement discontinuity elements that cover the entire crack surface and the other boundaries. A few numerical examples are included to show that the present approach is very efficient and accurate for the calculating the SIFs of crack problems in an infinite or a finite plate. The present numerical results of cracks emanating from an elliptical hole under biaxial loads can reveal the effect of the elliptical aspect ratio and the transverse load on the SIFs.     

Displacement discontinuity method for modeling axisymmetric cracks in an elastic half-space

This paper describes a displacement discontinuity method for modeling axisymmetric cracks in an elastic half-space or full space. The formulation is based on hypersingular integral equations that relate displacement jumps and tractions along the crack. The integral kernels, which represent stress influence functions for ring dislocation dipoles, are derived from available axisymmetric dislocation solutions. The crack is discretized into constant-strength displacement discontinuity elements, where each element represents a slice of a cone. The influence integrals are evaluated using a combination of numerical integration and a recursive procedure that allows for explicit integration of hyper- and Cauchy singularities. The accuracy of the solution at the crack tip is ensured by adding corrective stresses across the tip element. The method is validated by a comparison with analytical and numerical reference solutions.     

The G2 constant displacement discontinuity method – Part II: Solution of half-plane crack problems

In the previous Part I, the G2 constant displacement discontinuity element was presented that is dedicated for the fast (only one collocation point per element), stable and accurate numerical solution of modes I, II and III cracks of arbitrary shape in an infinite plane isotropic elastic body. Herein, another G2 constant displacement discontinuity element is constructed for the case of cracks in the half-plane. It is successfully validated against existing semi-analytical and numerical solutions of crack problems in the half-plane.     

Kinked crack analysis by a hybridized boundary element/boundary collocation method

In this research a two dimensional displacement discontinuity method (which is a kind of indirect boundary element method) using higher order elements (i.e. a source element with a cubic variation of displacement discontinuities having four sub-elements) is used to obtain the displacement discontinuities along each boundary element. In this paper, three kinds of the higher order boundary elements are used: the ordinary elements, the kink elements and the special crack tip elements.The boundary collocation technique is used for the calculation of the displacement discontinuities at the center of each sub-elements. Again a special boundary collocation technique is used to treat the kinked source elements occur in the crack analysis. Considering the two source elements (each having four sub-elements) joined at a corner (kink point). The collocation points in the cubic element model which are outside of the kink point are moved to the crack kink then the displacement discontinuities on the left and right sides of the kink are calculated. The displacement discontinuities of the kink point are obtained by averaging the corresponding values of its left and right sides. The special crack tip elements are also treated by the boundary displacement collocation technique considering the singularity variation of the displacements and stresses near the crack tip. Some simple example problems are solved numerically by the proposed method. The numerical results are compared with the corresponding results obtained by the previous methods cited in the literature. This comparison shows a very good agreement between the results and verify the accuracy and validity of the proposed method.     

Anti-plane shear cracks in ideally plastic crystals

Cracks in ductile single crystals are analyzed here for geometries and orientations such that two-dimensional states of anti-plane shear constitute possible deformation fields. The crystals are modelled as ideally plastic and yield according to critical resolved shear stresses on their slip systems. Restrictions on the asymptotic forms of stress and deformation fields at crack tips are established for anti-plane loading of stationary and quasistatically growing cracks, and solutions are presented for several specific orientations in f.c.c. and b.c.c. crystals. The asymptotic solutions are complemented by complete elastic-plastic solutions for stationary and growing cracks under small scale yielding, based on previous work by Rice (1967, 1984) and Freund (1979). Remarkably, the plastic zone at a stationary crack tip collapses into discrete planes of displacement and stress discontinuity emanating from the tip; plastic flow consists of concentrated shear on the displacement discontinuities. For the growing crack these same planes, if not coincident with the crack plane, constitute collapsed plastic zones in which velocity and plastic strain discontinuities occur, but across which the stresses and anti-plane displacement are fully continuous. The planes of discontinuity are in several cases coincident with crystal slip planes but it is shown that this need not be the case, e.g., for orientations in which anti-plane yielding occurs by multi-slip, or for special orientations in which the crack tip and the discontinuity planes are perpendicular to the activated slip plane.     

Numerical analysis of quasi-static crack branching in brittle solids by a modified displacement discontinuity method

Mechanism of quasi-static crack branching in brittle solids has been analyzed by a modified displacement discontinuity method. It has been assumed that the pre-existing cracks in brittle solids may propagate at the crack tips due to the initiation and propagation of the kink (or wing) cracks. The originated wing cracks will act as new cracks and can be further propagated from their tips according to the linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) theory. The kink displacement discontinuity formulations (considering the linear and quadratic interpolation functions) are specially developed to calculate the displacement discontinuities for the left and right sides of a kink point so that the first and second mode kink stress intensity factors can be estimated. The crack tips are also treated by boundary displacement collocation technique considering the singularity variation of the displacements and stresses near the crack tip. The propagating direction of the secondary cracks can be predicted by using the maximum tangential stress criterion. An iterative algorithm is used to predict the crack propagating path assuming an incremental increase of the crack length in the predicted direction (straight and curved cracks have been treated). The same approach has been used for estimating the crack propagating direction and path of the original and wing cracks considering the special crack tip elements. Some example problems are numerically solved assuming quasi-static conditions. These results are compared with the corresponding experimental and numerical results given in the literature. This comparison validates the accuracy and applicability of the proposed method.     

A numerical study of crack tip constraint in ductile single crystals

In this work, the effect of crack tip constraint on near-tip stress and deformation fields in a ductile FCC single crystal is studied under mode I, plane strain conditions. To this end, modified boundary layer simulations within crystal plasticity framework are performed, neglecting elastic anisotropy. The first and second terms of the isotropic elastic crack tip field, which are governed by the stress intensity factor K and T-stress, are prescribed as remote boundary conditions and solutions pertaining to different levels of T-stress are generated. It is found that the near-tip deformation field, especially, the development of kink or slip shear bands, is sensitive to the constraint level. The stress distribution and the size and shape of the plastic zone near the crack tip are also strongly influenced by the level of T-stress, with progressive loss of crack tip constraint occurring as T-stress becomes more negative. A family of near-tip fields is obtained which are characterized by two terms (such as K and T or J and a constraint parameter Q) as in isotropic plastic solids.     

利用边界单元法求平面问题应力强度因子K_I的应力-位移杂交法

本文提出用裂尖附近2点或3点的应力和位移计算应力强度因子K_I的杂交方法.这种方法充分利用了边界单元法的计算结果,考虑了裂尖应力场和位移场渐近展开式的高阶项,使用远离裂尖的点算出的K_I也有较好的精度,拟合线十分平坦.用算例的结果将杂交法与一般的位移法和应力法进行了比较,同时,对常量单元和线性单元也进行了比较.     

Dynamic steady crack growth in elastic-plastic solids—propagation of strong discontinuities

The near-tip field of a mode I crack growing steadily under plane strain conditions is studied. A key issue is whether strong discontinuities can propagate under dynamic conditions. Theories which impose rather restrictive assumptions on the structure of an admissible deformation path through a dynamically propagating discontinuity have been proposed recently. Asymptotic solutions for dynamic crack growth, based on such theories, do not contain any discontinuities. In the present work a broader family of deformation paths is considered and we show that a discontinuity can propagate dynamically without violating any of the mechanical constitutive relations of the material. The proposed theory for the propagation of strong discontinuities is corroborated by very detailed finite element calculations. The latter shows a plane of strong discontinuity emanating from the crack tip (with its normal pointing in the direction of crack advance) and moving with the tip. Elastic unloading ahead of and/or behind the plane of discontinuity and behind the crack tip have also been observed.The numerical investigation is performed within the framework of a boundary layer formulation whereby the remote loading is fully specified by the first two terms in the asymptotic solution of the elasto-dynamic crack tip field, characterized by K₁, and T. It is shown that the family of near-tip fields, associated with a given crack speed, can be arranged into a one-parameter field based on a characteristic length, L_g, which scales with the smallest dimension of the plastic zone. This extends a previous result for quasi-static crack growth.     

裂纹扩展过程中线性内聚力模型计算的半解析有限元法

提出了求解基于线性内聚力模型的平面裂纹扩展问题的半解析有限元法,利用弹性平面扇形域哈密顿体系的方程,通过分离变量法及共轭辛本征函数向量展开法,推导了一个环形和一个圆形奇异超级解析单元列式,组装这两个超级单元能准确地描述裂纹表面作用有双线性内聚力的平面裂纹尖端场。将该解析元与有限元相结合,构成半解析的有限元法,可求解任意几何形状和载荷的基于线性内聚力模型的平面裂纹扩展问题。典型算例的计算结果表明本文方法简单有效,具有令人满意的精度。