Mode I stress intensity factor solutions for spot welds in lap-shear specimens

The analytical solutions of the mode I stress intensity factor for spot welds in lap-shear specimens are investigated based on the classical Kirchhoff plate theory for linear elastic materials. First, closed-form solutions for an infinite plate containing a rigid inclusion under counter bending conditions are derived. The development of the closed-form solutions is then used as a guide to develop approximate closed-form solutions for a finite square plate containing a rigid inclusion under counter bending conditions. Based on the J integral, the closed-form solutions are used to develop the analytical solutions of the mode I stress intensity factor for spot welds in lap-shear specimens of large and finite sizes. The analytical solutions of the mode I stress intensity factor based on the solutions for infinite and finite square plates with an inclusion are compared with the results of the three-dimensional finite element computations of lap-shear specimens with various ratios of the specimen half width to the nugget radius. The results indicate that the mode I stress intensity factor solution based on the finite square plate model with an inclusion agrees well with the computational results for lap-shear specimens for the ratio of the half specimen width to the nugget radius between 4 and 15. Finally, a set of the closed-form stress intensity factor solutions for lap-shear specimens at the critical locations are proposed for future applications.     

Geometric functions of stress intensity factor solutions for spot welds in lap-shear specimens

In this paper, the stress intensity factor solutions for spot welds in lap-shear specimens are investigated by finite element analyses. Three-dimensional finite element models are developed for lap-shear specimens to obtain accurate stress intensity factor solutions. In contrast to the existing investigations of the stress intensity factor solutions based on the finite element analyses, various ratios of the sheet thickness, the half specimen width, the overlap length, and the specimen length to the nugget radius are considered in this investigation. The computational results confirm the functional dependence on the nugget radius and sheet thickness of the stress intensity factor solutions of [Zhang, S., 1997. Stress intensities at spot welds. International Journal of Fracture 88, 167–185; Zhang, S., 1999. Approximate stress intensity factors and notch stresses for common spot-welded specimens. Welding Journal 78, 173s–179s]. The computational results provide some geometric functions in terms of the normalized specimen width, the normalized overlap length, and the normalized specimen length to the stress intensity factor solutions of [Zhang, S., 1997. Stress intensities at spot welds. International Journal of Fracture 88, 167–185; Zhang, S., 1999. Approximate stress intensity factors and notch stresses for common spot-welded specimens. Welding Journal 78, 173s–179s] for lap-shear specimens. The computational results also indicate that when the spacing between spot welds decreases, the mode I stress intensity factor solution at the critical locations increases and the mode mixture of the stress intensity factors changes consequently. Finally, based on the analytical and computational results, the dimensions of lap-shear specimens and the corresponding approximate stress intensity factor solutions are suggested.     

Geometric functions of stress intensity factor solutions for spot welds in U-shape specimens

In this paper, the stress intensity factor solutions for spot welds in U-shape specimens are investigated by finite element analyses. Three-dimensional finite element models are developed for U-shape specimens to obtain accurate stress intensity factor solutions. In contrast to the existing investigations of the stress intensity factor solutions based on the finite element analyses, various ratios of the sheet thickness, half specimen width, half specimen length, and corner radius to the nugget radius are considered in this investigation. The computational results confirm the functional dependence on the nugget radius and sheet thickness of Zhang’s analytical solutions. The computational results provide a geometric function in terms of the normalized half specimen width, normalized half specimen length, and normalized corner radius to Zhang’s analytical solutions. The computational results also provide a geometric function in terms of the aspect ratio of the specimen to complete Lin and Pan’s analytical solution. Finally, based on the analytical and computational results, the dimensions of U-shape specimens are suggested.     

New stress intensity factor solutions of a periodic array of cracks in residual stress field

Many important applications of crack mechanics involve self-equilibrating residual or thermal stress fields. For these types of problems, the traditional fracture mechanics approach based on the superposition principle has ignored the effect of crack surface contact when the crack-tip propagates into the residual compressive region. Contact between the crack faces and the wedging action are responsible for subsequent crack-tip reopening, which often leads to a much larger mode I stress intensity factor. In this study, an analytical approach is used to study the effect of crack face contact for a period array of collinear cracks embedded in several typical residual stress fields. It is found that the nonlinear contact between crack surfaces dominates the cracking behavior in residual/thermal stress fields, which is responsible for crack coalescence.     

Stress intensity factors for curved and kinked cracks in plane extension

A singular integral equation containing the crack opening displacement (COD) is developed for solving plane elasticity problems. The crack may contain any number of kinks at different intervals and orientations, such as a saw-tooth shape. Cracks in the form of a sine wave can also be treated. The crack tip stress intensity factors are evaluated for a variety of crack shapes and the results are displayed graphically. The distance between the crack tips is found to be a dominant factor on the crack tip stress intensity while the angle between the tangent to the crack tip and load direction determines the proportion of Mode I and II stress intensity factors.     

The stress intensity factors near the tips of two collinear cracks in composite under in-plane shear

In this paper, the stress-intensity factors for two collinear cracks in a composite bonded by an isotropic and an anisotropic half-plane were calculated. The cracks are paralell to the interface, and the crack surfaces are loaded by uniform shear stresses. By using Fourier transform, the mixed boundary value problem is reduced to a set of singular integral equations. For solving the integral equations, the crack surface displacements are expanded in triangular series and the unknown coefficients in the series are determined by the Schmidt method. The stress intensity factors for the cracks in the boron-fibre plastics and aluminium joined composite and in carbon-fibre reinforced plastics were calculated numerically.     

Convolution of the impact three-dimensional elasto-dynamics and dynamic stress intensity factor for an elliptic cracks

This paper presents a formulation for three-dimensional elastodynamics with an elliptic crack based on the Laplace and Fourier transforms and the convolution theorem. The dynamic stress intensity factor for the crack is determined by solving a Fredholm integral equation of the first kind. The results of this paper are very close to those given by the two-dimensional dual integral equation method. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (K19672007)     

A unified definition for stress intensity factors of interface corners and cracks

Based upon linear fracture mechanics, it is well known that the singular order of stresses near the crack tip in homogeneous materials is a constant value −1/2, which is nothing to do with the material properties. For the interface cracks between two dissimilar materials, the near tip stresses are oscillatory due to the order of singularity being −1/2 ± iε and −1/2. The oscillation index ε is a constant related to the elastic properties of both materials. While for the general interface corners, their singular orders depend on the corner angle as well as the elastic properties of the materials. Owing to the difference of the singular orders of homogeneous cracks, interface cracks and interface corners, their associated stress intensity factors are usually defined separately and even not compatibly. Since homogenous cracks and interface cracks are just special cases of interface corners, in order to build a direct connection among them a unified definition for their stress intensity factors is proposed in this paper. Based upon the analytical solutions obtained previously for the multibonded anisotropic wedges, the near tip solutions for the general interface corners have been divided into five different categories depending on whether the singular order is distinct or repeated, real or complex. To provide a stable and efficient computing approach for the general mixed-mode stress intensity factors, the path-independent H-integral based on reciprocal theorem of Betti and Rayleigh is established in this paper. The complementary solutions needed for calculation of H-integral are also provided in this paper. To illustrate our results, several different kinds of examples are shown such as cracks in homogenous isotropic or anisotropic materials, central or edge notches in isotropic materials, interface cracks and interface corners between two dissimilar materials.     

Stress intensity factor for a kinked interfacial crack in dissimilar anisotropic materials under antiplane deformation

The asymptotic problem of a kinked interfacial crack in dissimilar anisotropic materials under antiplane deformation is investigated. The linear transformation method for the problem of the anisotropic bimaterial with a straight interface is proposed. The stress intensity factor for the kinked interfacial crack in the anisotropic composite is obtained from the solution of the transformed problem of the kinked interfacial crack in the isotropic bimaterial based on the linear transformation method. The effects of the material parameters as well as the kink angle on the stress intensity factor are discussed from numerical results of the stress intensity factor. The finite element analysis is carried out to verify the stress intensity factor obtained by using the linear transformation. The influence of the material orientations on the stress intensity factor is investigated for the kinked crack in the bimaterial consisting of dissimilar inclined orthotropic materials.     

岩石断裂韧度试样CCNBD临界应力强度因子的全新数值标定

国际岩石力学学会（ISRM）提出的用人字型切槽巴西圆盘（Cracked Chevron Notched Brazilian Disc—CCNBD）测试岩石I型断裂韧度所必需的量纲为一的临界应力强度因子Y＊min的精度需要进一步改进。本文对CCNBD试样的Y＊min进行了系统的重新标定,CCNBD的几何参数有效范围为0.44≤αB≤1.04、0≤α0≤0.69、0.4≤α1≤0.8。采用有限单元法对CCNBD做三维数值分析,得到了435种CCNBD试样的Y＊min值标定结果;在此基础上全面修正了CCNBD试样Y＊min计算公式中u和v的取值表;给出了不用查表直接确定CCNBD试样Y＊min值的近似表达式,该表达式计算结果与标定结果的相对误差绝对值在1.87%以内。对于ISRM建议的CCNBD标准试样的Y＊min值：ISRM标定值0.84比本文结果0.957小12.2%;分片合成法标定值0.947比本文结果小1.0%;子模型法标定值0.943比本文结果小1.5%。本文特别强调了任何CCNBD试样Y＊min的取值必须在它对应的上限和下限所限定的范围内,这一要求对判断Y＊min标定值是否合理是很重要的。     

A singular element for calculating the stress intensity factor

This paper proposes a new type of special element (sectorial singular element) for calculating the linear elastic stress intensity factor. The shape of element not only accords with the demands of finite element analysis, but also coincides with the theory of linear elastic fracture mechanics. The accuracy and economy of the result in this paper are satisfactory.     

Crack front curvature effect on stress intensity factor of through and part-through thickness cracks

The character of the local stresses and displacements are determined for a through crack with finite radius of curvature in a finite thickness plate. Numerical results obtained from the boundary element method show that the solutions are sufficiently accurate for /a ≤ 0.03 and 0.03 ≤ /a ≤ 0.1, where and a represent, respectively, the crack front radius of curvature and crack dimension such that a is the width of a through thickness crack and the depth of a part-through crack. For /a ≤ 0.1, the asymptotic singular stress field dominates such that the Mode I stress intensity factor K₁ can be evaluated. As the crack border radius of curvature is increased for /a ≥ 0.1, the non-singular terms become significant such that K_I would no longer dominate. Other failure criteria would have to be invoked to address fracture initiation.     

Simultaneous measurements of stress intensity and toughness for fast-running cracks in steel

Simultaneous measurements of the dynamicstress-intensity factorK _I ^dyn and the dynamic-fracture toughnessK _ID were made in a high-strength steel to investigate the relation between energy delivered to and energy absorbed by rapidly propagating cracks. Values ofK _I ^dyn were obtained intermittently during the propagation history by the shadow optical method of caustics from high-speed photographs of the moving crack tips. Values ofK _ID were calculated from temperature maxima recorded by thermocouples near the crack path. The results indicate that for fast-running cracks, the change in energy available at the crack tip can be significantly less than the energy absorbed in crack extension, suggesting that currently used dynamic-energy-balance methods for determining dynamic-fracture toughnesses may provide erroneous values.     

Variation of the stress intensity factor along the crack front of interacting semi-elliptical surface cracks

Summary  In this study, the interaction between two semi-elliptical co-planar surface cracks is considered when Poisson's ratio ν = 0.3. The problem is formulated as a system of singular integral equations, based on the idea of the body force method. In the numerical calculation, the unknown density of body force density is approximated by the product of a fundamental density function and a polynomial. The results show that the present method yields smooth variations of stress intensity factors along the crack front very accurately, for various geometrical conditions. When the size of crack 1 is larger than the size of crack 2, the maximum stress intensity factor appears at a certain point, β₁=177^∘, of crack 1. Along the outside of crack 1, that is at β₁=0∼90^∘, the interaction can be negligible even if the two cracks are very close. The interaction can be negligible when the two cracks are spaced in such a manner that their two closest points are separated by a distance exceeding the small crack's major diameter. The variations of stress intensity factor of a semi-elliptical crack are tabulated and charted. Received 30 August 1999; accepted for publication 22 February 2000     

Scattering of SH-wave by cracks originating at an elliptic hole and dynamic stress intensity factor

The method of complex function and the method of Green‘s function are used to investigate the problem of SH-wave scattering by radial cracks of any limited length along the radius originating at the boundary of an elliptical hole, and the solution of dynamicstress intensity factor at the crack tip was given. A Green‘s function was constructed for the problem, which is a basic solution of displacement field for an elastic half space containing a half elliptical gap impacted by anti-plane harmonic linear source force at any point of its horizontal boundary. With division of a crack technique, a series of integral equations can be established on the conditions of continuity and the solution of dynamic stress intensity factor can be obtained. The influence of an elliptical hole on the dynamic stress intensity factor at the crack tip was discussed.     

Determination of stress intensity factors for cracks of complex shape in anisotropic plates

The application of analytical methods to the problem of fatigue crack propagation and branching is complicated by the shortage of information on the stress distribution near the tip of cracks of complex configuration. A discussion of this problem and a survey of the studies in this area can be found in [1], for example. Below we develop a method of solving a problem concerning a system of cracks of complex form in an anisotropic half-plane. An efficient algorithm for numerical solution of the problem is proposed. A study is made of the effect of anisotropy of the material, the free edge of the plate, and the curvature of the crack on the stress intensity factors at the tips of the cracks.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 6, pp. 124–128, November–December, 1986.     

The stress intensity factors for two collinear edge cracks in a rotating disc

Summary The problem of determining the stress intensity factors and the crack formation energy of two edge cracks of unequal length on the same diameter of a finite rotating elastic disc is reduced to the solution of two coupled singular integral equations. Numerical results are given.

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Zusammenfassung Das Problem der Bestimmung der Spannungsintensitätsfaktoren und der Rissbildungsenergie van zwei Kantenrissen ungleicher Länge auf denselben Durchmesser in einer endlichen rotierenden elastischen Scheibe wird auf die Lösung von zwei zusammengeschriebenen singulären Integralgleichnungen reduziert. Es werden numerische Resultate gegeben.