Crack growth resistance in non-perfect plasticity: Isotropic versus kinematic hardening

The Strain Energy Density Theory is applied for analyzing energy dissipation and crack growth in the three-point bending specimen when the material behavior follows a multilinear strain-hardening stress-strain relationship. The problem is solved through the application of incremental theory of plasticity and finite element method.The rate of change of the strain energy density factor S with crack length a is verified to be governed by the relation . Results are obtained for isotropic and kinematic hardening. Moreover, the effects of loading step and specimen size are pointed out.