Stress singularities for three-dimensional corners using the boundary integral equation method

The boundary integral equation method is developed to study three-dimensional asymptotic singular stress fields at vertices of a pyramidal notch or inclusion in an isotropic elastic space. Two-dimensional boundary integral equations are used for the infinite body with pyramidal notches and inclusions when either stresses or displacements are specified on its surface. Applying the Mellin integral transformation reduces the problem to one-dimensional singular integral equations over a closed, piece-wise smooth line. Using quadrature formulas for regular and singular integrals with Hilbert and logarithmic kernels, these integral equations are reduced to a homogeneous system of linear algebraic equations. Setting its determinant to zero provides a characteristic equation for the determination of the stress singularity power. Numerical results are obtained and compared against known eigenvalues from the literature for an infinite region with a conical notch or inclusion, for a Fichera vertex, and for a half-space with a wedge-shaped notch or inclusion.     

Stress singularities at concentrated loads

The stress singularity created by a concentrated load applied at the boundary of a half-plane was studied by transforming it into an optical singularity by the optical method of caustics. The half-plane was considered to be elastic, isotropic and under generalized plane-stress conditions. According to the method of caustics, the light rays impinging normally at the thin plate are partly reflected from either the front or the rear faces of the plate. The reflected rays are deviated because of the important constraint of the plate at the vicinity of the applied load and the significant variation of the refractive index there. The deviated light rays, when projected on a reference screen, are concentrated along a singular curve which is, therefore, strongly illuminated and forms a caustic. It is shown that the shape and size of the caustic depends on the stress singularity at the point of application of the load. Thus, by measuring the dimensions of this singular curve, one can evaluate the state of stress at the singularity. The characteristic properties of the caustic created by such a singularity were studied in relation with the loading mode of the plate.     

Stress singularities resulting from various boundary conditions in angular corners of plates of arbitrary thickness in extension

The stress singularities in angular corners of plates of arbitrary thickness with various boundary conditions subjected to in-plane loading are studied within the first-order plate theory. By adapting an eigenfunction expansion approach a set of characteristic equations for determining the structure and orders of singularities of the stress resultants in the vicinity of the vertex is developed. The characteristic equations derived in this paper incorporate that obtained within the classical plane theory of elasticity (M.L. Williams’ solution) and also describe the possible singular behaviour of the out-of-plane shear stress resultants induced by various boundary conditions.     

Stress concentration at the tip of crack

By means of the theory of nonlocal elasticity, the stress concentration is determined at the tip of crack subjected to a uniform tension perpendicular to the line of crack at infinity. The stress concentration is found to be finite and depends on the length of the crack.     

Split singularities and the competition between crack penetration and debond at a bimaterial interface

For a crack impinging upon a bimaterial interface at an angle, the singular stress field is a linear superposition of two modes, usually of unequal exponents, either a pair of complex conjugates, or two unequal real numbers. In the latter case, a stronger and a weaker singularity coexist (known as split singularities). We define a dimensionless parameter, called the local mode mixity, to characterize the proportion of the two modes at the length scale where the processes of fracture occur. We show that the weaker singularity can readily affect whether the crack will penetrate, or debond, the interface.     

Stress distribution at the tip of a growing crack

High-speed motion-picture photography and an optical method of stress analysis have been used to study the distribution of elastic stress fields at the tip of a crack growing at a fast rate. The existence of several specific properties of the field characteristic of fast crack propagation rates has been established, and the results obtained are used to explain the branching of cracks.The authors convey their thanks to G. I. Barenblatt for sponsoring this work.The authors convey their thanks to G. I. Barenblatt for sponsoring this work.     

On the intensity of linear elastic high order singularities ahead of cracks and re-entrant corners

The paper deals with high order elastic singular terms at cracks and re-entrant corners (sharp V-notches), which are commonly omitted in linear elastic analyses by the argument that the strain energy and displacements in the near-tip region should be bounded. The present analysis proves that these terms are fully included in the elastic part of complete elastic–plastic stress and strain solutions.The intensities of high order singular terms are found to be linked to the linear elastic stress intensity factor and the extension of the plastic zone along the crack bisector line. The smaller the plastic radius, the smaller the intensities of high order singular terms are.A physical justification of the existence of high order singular terms is provided on the basis of the strain energy density distribution detected along the crack bisector line. Finally, the influence of the V-notch opening angle is made explicit, discussing also the relationship between the singularity orders and the solution of a Williams’ type sinusoidal eigen-equation.     

Hamiltonian principle based stress singularity analysis near crack corners of multi-material junctions

This paper presents a new method for the stress singularity analysis near the crack corners of a multi-material junctions. The stress singularities near the crack corners of multi-dissimilar isotropic elastic material junctions are studied analytically in terms of the methods developed in Hamiltonian system. The governing equations of plane elasticity in a sectorial domain are derived in Hamiltonian form via variable substitution and variational principle respectively. Both of the methods of global state variable separation and symplectic eigenfunction expansion are used to find the analytical solution of the problem. The relationships among the state vectors in different material spaces are obtained by means of coordinate transformation and consistent conditions between the two adjacent domains. The expression of the original problem is thus changed into a new form where the solutions of symplectic generalized eigenvalues and eigenvectors are needed. The closed form of expressions is established for the stress singularity analysis near the corner with arbitrary vertex angles. Numerical results are presented with several chosen angles and multi-material constants. To show the potential of the new method proposed, a semi-analytical finite element is furthermore developed for the numerical analysis of crack problems.     

Delamination of compressed thin layers at corners

An analysis of delamination for a thin elastic layer under compression, attached to a substrate at a corner is carried out. The analysis is performed by combining results from interface fracture mechanics and the theory of thin shells. In contrast with earlier results for delamination on a flat substrate, the present problem is not a bifurcation problem. Crack closure at sufficiently high stress levels are shown to occur. Results show a very strong dependency on fracture mechanical parameters of the angle of the corner including the range of parameters where crack closure occurs. Analytical results for the fracture mechanical properties have been obtained, and these are applied in a study of the effect of contacting crack faces. Special attention has been given to analyse conditions under which steady state propagation of buckling driven delamination takes place.     

Experimental analysis for singularities in crack normal to bimaterial interface

Three kinds of the model of crack normal to the bimaterial interface are studied by an experimental method. The highly sensitive moire interferometry technique is employed to obtain the displacement fields near the crack tip. The singularities of the three kinds of model are determined and analyzed by the experimental method and compared and discussed.     

Stress singularities of anisotropic plates with angular cuts

Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 48–52, January, 1996.     

Stress singularities in an anisotropic body of revolution

To fill the gap in the literature on the application of three-dimensional elasticity theory to geometrically induced stress singularities, this work develops asymptotic solutions for Williams-type stress singularities in bodies of revolution that are made of rectilinearly anisotropic materials. The Cartesian coordinate system used to describe the material properties differs from the coordinate system used to describe the geometry of a body of revolution, so the problems under consideration are very complicated. The eigenfunction expansion approach is combined with a power series solution technique to find the asymptotic solutions by directly solving the three-dimensional equilibrium equations in terms of the displacement components. The correctness of the proposed solution is verified by convergence studies and by comparisons with results obtained using closed-form characteristic equations for an isotropic body of revolution and using the commercial finite element program ABAQUS for orthotropic bodies of revolution. Thereafter, the solution is employed to comprehensively examine the singularities of bodies of revolution with different geometries, made of a single material or bi-materials, under different boundary conditions.     

On the computation of stress intensities at fixed-free corners

A path independent integral formula is developed for the computation of the intensity of the stress singularity at a right corner where one edge is rigidly fixed and the other is free of traction. Numerical results are presented for the case of a strip compressed between rough rigid stamps and compared with previously published results for finite and semi-infinite strips and cylinders.     

Damage analysis of thermopiezoelectric properties: Part I - crack tip singularities

This is Part I of the work on a two-dimensional analysis of thermal and electric fields of a thermopiezoelectric solid damaged by cracks. It deals with finding the singular crack tip behavior for the temperature, heat flow, displacements, electric potential, stresses and electric displacements. By application of Fourier transformations and the extended Stroh formalism, the problem is reduced to a pair of dual integral equations for the temperature field with the aid of an auxiliary function. The electroelastic field is governed by another pair of dual integral equations. The inverse square root singularity is found for the heat flow field while the logarithmic singularity prevailed for the electroelastic field regardless of whether the crack lies in a homogeneous piezoelectric solid or at an interface of two dissimilar piezoelectric materials. Results are given for the energy release rate and a finite length crack oriented at an arbitrarily angle with reference to the external disturbances. Part II of this paper considers the modelling of a piezoelectric material containing microcracks. A representative cracked area element is used to obtain the effective conductivity and electroelastic modulus. Numerical results are given for a peizoelectric Bati O₃ ceramic with cracks.     

Stress state of isotropic layer with crack

The stress state of an elastic isotropic layer with a finite through crack is considered. At the boundary planes of the layer, the normal component of the displacement vector and the tangential stress are zero. The crack surface is subject to normal forces that vary arbitrarily. On the basis of three-dimensional elasticity theory, a method of solving the problem is proposed. Numerical results characterizing the behavior of the normal-stress intensity coefficient are obtained. Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 43–51, January, 1997.     

Stress singularities near the apex of a cylindrically polarized piezoelectric wedge

Summary In this paper, the stress singularities for a cylindrically polarized piezoelectric wedge are investigated. The characteristic equations are derived analytically by using the extended Lekhnitskii formulation. The piezoelectric material (PZT-4) is polarized in the radial, circular or axial direction, respectively. Similar to the rectilinearly polarized piezoelectric problem, the inplane and antiplane stress fields are uncoupled. The results show the variations of the singularity orders with the changes of the wedge angle, material constants, polarized direction, and the boundary conditions.     

Stress concentration around a spheroidal crack caused by a harmonic wave incident at an arbitrary angle

A method is proposed to study the stress concentration around a shallow spheroidal crack in an infinite elastic body. The stress concentration is due to the diffraction of a low-frequency plane longitudinal wave by the crack. The direction of wave propagation is established in which the combined concentration of mode I and mode II stresses is maximum __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 70–77, January 2006.