Fully plastic J-integral solutions for surface cracked plates under biaxial loading

In this paper, surface cracked plates under biaxial tension are studied. Three-dimensional elastic-plastic finite element analyses have been carried out to calculate the J-integral for surface cracked plate for a wide range of geometry, biaxiality and material properties. Fully plastic J-integral solutions along the front of the surface cracks are presented for Ramberg-Osgood power law hardening material of n = 3, 5, 10 and 15. Geometries considered are a/c = 0.2, 1.0 and a/t = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 and the biaxial ratios of 0, 0.5 and 1. Based on these results, the J-integral along the crack front for general elastic-plastic loading conditions can be estimated using the EPRI scheme. These solutions are suitable for fracture analyses for surface cracked plates under biaxial loading.