Investigation on critical triaxiality along unified yield loci at crack tip under mixed mode (I + II) fracture

Metallic components used in industries and day to day appliances often contain micro-cracks. In general, cracks occur in various orientations to the loading axis. The present paper discusses the criticality of stress triaxiality, a well-known ductile fracture parameter, on the yield loci at the crack tip. In the process, an old model of stress triaxiality has been generalized using unified strength theory to incorporate various convex and nonconvex failure criteria, including single shear, twin shear, etc. The new triaxiality model also reveals about the effect of intermediate principal stress at the crack tip for materials with and without strength difference. The crack initiation angles at the crack tip, obtained through the proposed model have been found to be in unison with those obtained through other fracture criteria.