Subcritical and critical states of a crack with failure zones

The problem on the stress–strain state near a mode I crack in an infinite plate is solved in the frame of a cohesive zone model. The complex variable method of Muskhelishvili is used to obtain the crack opening displacements caused by the cohesive traction, which models the failure zone at the crack tip, as well as by the external load. The finite stress condition and logarithmic singularity of the derivative of the separation with respect to the coordinate at the tip of a physical crack are taken into account.The cohesive traction distribution is sought in a piecewise linear form, nodal values of which are being numerically chosen to satisfy the traction-separation law. According to this law, the cohesive traction is coupled with the corresponding separation and fracture toughness. The tips of the physical crack and cohesive zone (geometric variables) along with the discrete cohesive traction are used as the problem parameters determining the stress-strain state. If the crack length is included in the set, then the critical crack size can be found for the given loading intensity.The obtained determining system of equations is solved numerically. To find the initial point for a standard numerical algorithm, the asymptotic determining system is derived. In this system, the geometric variables can be easily eliminated, which make it possible to linearize the system.In the numerical examples, the one-parameter traction-separation laws are used. Influence of the shape parameters of the law on the critical crack size and the corresponding cohesive length is studied. The possibility of using asymptotic solutions for determining the critical parameters is analysed. It is established that the critical crack length slightly depends on the shape parameter, while the cohesive length shows a strong dependence on the shape of cohesive laws.