Modification of the fracture criterion for V-shaped notches (plane problem). Relationship between toughness and strength and structural parameters

A fracture criterion of the type of the Neuber-Novozhilov criterion is proposed to describe the fracture in the vicinity of the tip of a V-shaped notch under tensile and shear loading. In the proposed criterion, the limits of averaging of the stresses along the notch axis depend on the presence, location, and size of the initial defects in the material. The crystal lattice parameter of the initial material is chosen for the characteristic linear size. For a V-shaped notch subjected to tension and shear, simple equations are obtained that relate the stress intensity factors for the modified singularity coefficients, the singularity coefficients themselves, and the theoretical tensile and shear strengths of a single crystal of the material taking into account the damage to the material in the vicinity of the notch tip. The equations obtained allow a passage to the limit from a notch to a crack. It is shown that the classical critical stress intensity factor used in the strength analysis of cracked solids is not a material constant.Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 106–115, January–February, 2005.     

An energy-based crack growth criterion for modelling elastic–plastic ductile fracture

A crack growth criterion is derived based on the Griffith energy concept and the cohesive zone model for modelling fracture in elastic–plastic ductile materials. The criterion is implemented in the finite element context by a virtual crack extension technique. An automatic modelling of the ductile fracture process is realised by combining a local remeshing procedure and the criterion. The validity of the derived criterion is examined by modelling a compact tension specimen.     

Subcritical Growth of an Internal Circular Crack in an Aging Viscoelastic Laminated Composite

Delayed fracture of a laminated composite under tensile loads applied at infinity is studied. The composite consists of alternating elastic and aging viscoelastic layers and contains an internal penny-shaped mode I macrocrack located in parallel to the layers. A modified Leonov–Panasyuk–Dugdale crack model and the critical crack-tip opening criterion constitute a fracture model. The subcritical crack growth equations are derived using the Volterra principle and the method of operator continued fractions. The laws governing delayed fracture are studied for a specific composite material     

On Two-Scale Model of Fracture Mesomechanics of Composites with Cracks under Compression

A two-level fracture model of composites with cracks under compression is proposed. Fiber-reinforced laminated panels with a hole are considered. The panels are compressed along the fibers so that two cracks propagate from the hole boundary at a right angle to the loading direction. The fracture mechanism is analyzed at two levels. The first level is the compression-induced stress concentration at the tip of a finite-thickness crack filled with a fractured material. At this level, the theory of elasticity of linear orthotropic body is used. The second level is compression fracture at the crack tip. The analysis performed at this level involves the three-dimensional linearized theory of stability of solids, considering microcracks in the interface between the fractured and intact materials, and the exact solution describing the compression-induced instability of the cracked interface. The second level is where results obtained by the author are used. Thus, the approach proposed employs the theory of elasticity of linear orthotropic body and the three-dimensional linearized theory of stability of solids to analyze a specific mechanism of fracture__________Published in Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 141–144, May 2005Reported at ICF-11 (Turin, Italy, March 20–25, 2005). The ICF-11 proceedings have been published on CD-ROM. The author ‘s other reports presented at ICF-6 (1984) to ICF-10 (2001) are listed in Appendix.     

Mesomechanics of fatigue fracture for polycrystals with macroconcentrators

Fatigue fracture of aluminum alloys is analyzed from analysis of time-spatial mesoscale substructures. The behavior involves many stages at the mesoscale and translational–rotational movement of the bulk structure element in addition to fragmentation. Mesofragments on a trajectory of the fatigue crack were also studied.     

Initiation and stable growth of penny-shaped crack in aging viscoelastic transversally isotropic material

Considered is the long-term cracking of an aging transversally isotropic material containing a Mode I penny-shaped crack under remotely applied tensile stress. The aging material properties are described by the Boltzmann–Volterra’s linear theory for integral operators with non-difference kernels. It applied to wood, concrete, some polymers and rocks. Only the symmetric case is considered where the crack lies in the plane of isotropy. The modified Leonov–Panasyuk–Dugdale’s crack model is used with a constant process zone assuming that the critical opening displacement is the fracture criterion. Volterra’s principle is applied to derive the equations of subcritical crack growth. Numerical calculations are made for subcritical crack growth for the specific example of transversally isotropic material simulating the behavior of reinforced concrete.     

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.     

Interaction of a growing crack with the boundary in a bicrystal

Dynamic photoelasticity has been used in conjunction with selective etching on lithium fluoride bicrystals to examine the interaction of a growing crack with inclined boundaries; it is found that the stresses at the head of the crack alter as the boundary is approached. The speed of the crack is related to the angle of incidence on the boundary and the angular disorientation of the latter. The change in crack speed is related to the change in state of stress at the vertex. Analytical and experimental distributions are presented for the stresses ahead of a growing crack.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 4, pp. 138–143, July–August, 1973.     

Shear crack propagation in the residual stress field

The problem of propagation of a longitudinal shear crack in a medium with a random field of internal stresses is considered and solved with the use of the theory of quasi-brittle failure. Local criterion of crack propagation under cyclic loading is derived, and its application as a model of fatigue crack propagation is investigated.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 117–119, May–June, 1970.     

Softening behaviour and correction of the fracture energy

The area under the load–displacement softening curve gives the total external work on the test specimen and not the fracture energy. The fracture energy follows from half this area that is equal to the critical strain energy release rate at the first crack increment. For wood this is correctly applied for mode II. For mode I however, as for other materials, the total area is wrongly regarded, a factor 2 is too high. In some applications, based on crack increment cycles, the error is even a multiple of this factor 2. On the other hand, the measurements at softening may show an apparent decrease of the specific fracture energy that can be explained by a small crack joining mechanism when the ultimate state of the ligament of the test specimen is reached. Post fracture behaviour is thus not comparable with the behaviour of macro crack initiation.It is further shown, by the kinetics of the process, that the irreversible work of an ultimate loading cycle is proportional to the activation energy of the fracture process and not to the driving force of the process. This explains why the crack velocity decreases with the increase of this irreversible work and increases with the stress intensity increase.The fracture energy is a function of the Griffith strength and is thus related to the effective width of the test specimen and not to the ligament length. This also has to be corrected. Based on the derivation of the softening curve, the reported fracture toughness of 720 kN m^−1.5 of double-edge notched tests is corrected to 330 kN m^−1.5 and the value of 467 kN m^−1.5, based on the fracture energy, of the compact tension tests, is also corrected to the right value of 330 kN m^−1.5. A revision of published mode I data, based on the fracture energy obtained by the area of the softening curve, is thus necessary.     

Fatigue based three-dimensional structural design optimisation studies implementing the generalised Frost–Dugdale crack growth law

Experimental studies of fatigue crack growth in aluminium alloys have shown that, at the low-to-mid stress intensity factor range, there is often a log-linear relationship between the crack length and the fatigue life. These observations have led to the development of the generalised Frost–Dugdale crack growth law, which allowed the accurate prediction of fatigue crack growth from Region I. For this research paper the ‘generalised Frost–Dugdale’ law was used to perform an optimisation study of 7050-T7451 Aluminium structures. The structural optimisation procedure proposed integrates geometrical modelling, structural analysis and optimization into one complete and automated computer-aided design process. The results from the structural optimisation study compared the ‘generalised Frost–Dugdale’ law and the traditional Paris law. Gradient-less, gradient-based optimisation algorithm and an enumeration scheme were considered in this investigation. The enumeration scheme takes advantage of a cluster computer architecture which enables a visualisation of the solution space allowing verification and validation of the optimisation algorithm. The results indicated that the optimal geometrical shape and predicted fatigue life depended on the crack sizes, structural geometry, boundary conditions and fatigue crack growth law. As a result, this procedure illustrates that for the design of light weight structures, a fatigue based optimisation used in conjunction with visualisation of the solution space may provide a viable design methodology. The importance of non-destructive inspection (NDI) and its role in determining optimal structural geometries is also revealed. Furthermore, the possibility of the application of the generalised Frost–Dugdale model in design optimisation has been demonstrated. This procedure has the potential to be applied to structures with complex structural configurations taking into account crack propagation in Region I.     

A centrally cracked thin circular disk, Part I: 3D Elastic–plastic finite element analysis

A full field solution, based on small deformation, three-dimensional elastic–plastic finite element analysis of the centrally cracked thin disk under mode I loading has been performed. The solution for the stresses under small-scale yielding and lo!cally fully plastic state has been compared with the HRR plane stress solution. At the outside of the 3D zone, within a distance of rσ_o/J=18, HRR dominance is maintained in the presence of a significant amount of compressive stress along the crack flanks. Ahead of this region, the HRR field overestimate the stresses. These results demonstrate a completely reversed state of stress in the near crack front compared to that in the plane strain case. The combined effect of geometry and finite thickness of the specimen on elastic–plastic crack tip stress field has been explored. To the best of our knowledge, such an attempt in the published literature has not been made yet. For the qualitative assessment of the results some of the field parameters have been compared to the available experimental results of K, gives a fair estimate of the crack opening stress near the crack front at a distance of order 10⁻² in. On the basis of this analysis, the Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics approach has been adopted in analyzing the fatigue crack extension experiments performed in the disk (Part II).     

Configuration of the atomic planes bordering a crack in the modified Peierls-Nabarro model

A crack model similar to the Peierls-Nabarro model is used to investigate the dependence of the configuration of the atomic planes bordering a crack on the law of interplanar interaction. The maximum stress at the end of the crack is determined directly from the stress law, and the configuration of the crack is described by a smooth function satisfying nonlinear integro-differential singular equation (1.3). A semi-inverse method of solving this equation is proposed. The configurations of the atomic planes bordering the crack are constructed for a series of laws of interplanar interaction.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 96–102, January–February, 1970.The authors thank Yu. N. Rabotnov for his interest in their work and A. A. Shtol'berg for assisting with the numerical calculations.     

A magnetoelectroelastic medium with an elliptical cavity under combined mechanical–electric–magnetic loading

The solution for an elliptical cavity in an infinite two-dimensional magnetoelectroelastic medium subject to remotely uniformly applied combined mechanical–electric–magnetic loadings is obtained by using the Stroh formalism and the exact boundary conditions along the surface of the cavity. By letting the minor-axis of the cavity to zero the solution for a crack is deduced. A self-consistent method is proposed to calculate the real crack opening under the combined mechanical–electric–magnetic loadings. The method requires that the crack opening is the minor-axis of the elliptical opening profile. Beside the real crack solution, four different extreme models, i.e., the impermeable crack, permeable crack, electrically impermeable and magnetically permeable crack and electrically permeable and magnetically impermeable crack, are discussed. An expression of the strain energy density factor is derived. Numerical results of the strain energy density at the crack tip are given for a BaTiO₃–CoFe₂O₄ composite with the piezoelectric BaTiO₃ material being the inclusion and the magnetostrictive CoFe₂O₄ material being the matrix. The effects of the proportion of the two phases, permeability of the crack to electric and magnetic fields, the electric and magnetic loadings on the strain energy density factor are discussed.     

Localised knife waves in a structured interface

We consider a Mode III lattice with an interface layer where the dynamic crack growth is caused by a localised sinusoidal wave. In the wave–fracture scenario, the ‘feeding wave’ (here also called the knife wave) delivers energy to the moving crack front, while the dissipative waves carry a part of this energy away from the front. The questions addressed here are:

• What are the conditions of existence of the localised knife wave?

• What is the lower bound of the amplitude of the feeding wave, which supports the crack propagation, for a given deformational fracture criterion?

• How does the crack speed depend on the amplitude of the feeding wave?

• What are the dissipative waves? How much energy is irradiated by these waves and what is the total dissipation?

• What are the conditions of existence of the steady-state regime for the propagating crack?

We consider analytically two established regimes: the steady-state regime, where the motion of neighbouring masses (along the interface) differs only by a constant shift in time, and an alternating-strain regime, where the corresponding amplitudes differ by sign. We also present the numerical simulation results for a model of a high-contrast interface structure. Along with the energy of the feeding and dissipative waves, an energy radiated to the bulk of the lattice is identified.

Energy condition at the end of a nonstationary crack

The plane problem of the theory of elasticity is considered. It is assumed that in the neighborhood of the tip of an arbitrarily moving crack the stresses have a singularity of order r^–1/2. On this assumption a general expression is obtained for the distribution of the stresstensor components in the given neighborhood. This distribution is determined by the two parameters N and P. In the case of stresses symmetrical about the line of the crack (P=0) the angular distribution does not depend on the intensity coefficient N and is determined only by the velocity of the crack at the given instant and the transverse and longitudinal wave velocities. On the same assumptions it is shown that the energy condition obtained by Craggs for the particular case of steady-state motion is a necessary condition for the arbitrarily moving crack. Irwin [1] and Cherepanov [2] have studied these questions in the quasi-static approximation.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 175–178, May–June, 1969.     

Retardation of a crack with connections between the faces using an induced thermoelastic stress field

This paper considers local temperature variations near the tip of a crack in the presence of regions in which the crack faces interact. It is assumed that these regions are adjacent to the crack tip and are comparable in size to the crack size. The problem of local temperature variations consists of delay or retardation of crack growth. For a crack with connections between the crack faces subjected to external tensile loads, an induced thermoelastic stress field, and the stresses at the connections preventing crack opening, the boundary-value problem of the equilibrium of the crack reduces to a system of nonlinear singular integrodifferential equations with a Cauchy kernel. The normal and tangential stresses at the connections are found by solving this system of equations. The stress intensity factors are calculated. The energy characteristics of cracks with tip regions are considered. The limiting equilibrium condition for cracks with tip regions is formulated using the criterion of limiting stretching of the connections.Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 133–143, January–February, 2005     

Propagation of a shear crack in a randomly heterogeneous body

Propagation of a crack in a randomly heterogeneous body exposed to longitudinal shear is considered (in a Born approximation). It is proved that the stress means at the crack tip have singularities on the order of (r)^–1/2. The effective coefficient of stress intensity is introduced. It is known that the propagation of a crack in a homogeneous body is of a local nature, i.e., energy consumption in the growth of the crack is completely determined by the coefficient of stress intensity, which is a local characteristic. The equivalence of the force and energy approaches is mathematically expressed by the Irwin equation [1]. An analog of the Irwin equation is obtained for the case of a randomly heterogeneous body.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 1, pp. 145–148, January–February, 1976.     

The Stress State of a Ferromagnetic with an Elliptic Crack in a Homogeneous Magnetic Field

The problem on the stress–strain state of an infinite isotropic body made of a magnetically soft material and containing an elliptic crack is considered. It is assumed that the body is under an external magnetic field perpendicular to the crack plane. The basic characteristics of the stress–strain state and the magnetic field induced are determined and their singularities near the elliptic crack are studied. Formulas are given for the stress intensity factors for the force and magnetic fields near the crack tip     

Near crack line elastic–plastic analysis for a infinite plate loaded by two pairs of point tensile forces

The near crack line analysis method is used to investigate a center crack loaded by two pairs of point tensile forces in an infinite plate in an elastic–perfectly plastic solid, and the analytical solutions are obtained in this paper. These solutions include: the elastic–plastic stress field near the crack line, the law that the length of the plastic zone along the crack line is varied with an external loads and the bearing capacity of an infinite plate with a center crack. The results of this paper are sufficiently precise near the crack line because the assumptions of the small scale yielding theory have not been used and no other assumptions have been taken.