A note on the plastic zone size ahead of the propagating fatigue crack

Crack length and plastic zone size measurements were made on a limited number of mild steel tensile specimens of ASTMGS No.3.5 and No. 7.0 grain size for various stress amplitudes and various mean stresses. The data are in agreement with the predictions of Bilby, Cottrell and Swinden concerning the static yielding, and indicate that maximum shearing stress rather than shear stress amplitude should be used for best correlation.

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Zusammenfassung An einer beschränkten Anzahl Zugprüflingen aus weichem Stahl der Korngrösse ASTMGS N 3,5 und No 7,0 wurden Risslänge und Grösse der plastischen Zone an der Risspitze bei verschiedenen Spannungsamplituden und verschiedenen mittleren Spannungen gemessen.Die erhaltenen Daten stimmen mit den von Bilby, Cottrell und Swinden für den Fall des statischen Versagens vorhergesagten Daten überein und zeigen an, dass im Hinblick auf eine gute Uebereinstimmung mit der Theorie eher die maximale Schubspannung als die Schubspannungsamplitude verwendet werden soll.

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Résumé Sur un nombre limité d'éprouvettes de traction d'un acier doux, dont la grosseur du grain ASTM était de 3,5 et de 7,0, on a mesuré la longueur de la fissure de fatigue, et l'étendue de la zone de déformation plastique précédant celle-ci, en fonction de diverses amplitudes de la tension alternée, et de divers niveaux de la tension moyenne.Les résultats sont en accord avec les prédictions de Bilby, Cottrell et Swinden concernant l'élongation statique et montrent que pour obtenir une corrélation optimale il convient de considérer la contrainte maximale de cisaillement plutôt que l'amplitude de la tension appliquée.

     

Effect of micro-cracks on plastic zone ahead of the macro-crack tip

From the macroscopic point of view, the plastic zone (PZ) is obtained based on the distributed dislocation technique (DDT) and von Mises yield criterion. From the microscopic point of view, PZ is determined by the DDT model. The effect of micro-cracks on PZ of the macro-crack tip is analyzed. The results show that the micro-crack has a little amplification effect on PZ of the macro-crack tip when it locates in front of PZ. As the micro-crack is close to the macro-crack tip, PZ of the macro-crack tip and the micro-crack tip will join together. When the micro-crack enters into PZ of the macro-crack tip, it has an obvious shielding effect on PZ. When the micro-crack is behind the macro-crack tip, the width of PZ decreases while the height increases. The dislocation distribution in PZ is in the form of inverse pileup. The amplification and shielding regions are divided into five strip-shaped regions, and they appear alternately. The results can provide useful information to predict plastic behaviors near crack tip. The analysis of amplification and shielding effect is important to materials design.     

The size of the cohesive zone at a crack tip

Although it is markedly dependent on both the stress at the cohesive zone tip and the displacement at the crack tip, the cohesive zone size at the critical stage of crack extension is shown to be relatively insensitive to the detailed form of the force law describing the non-linearity of material behaviour.     

Ⅰ型裂纹尖端塑性区和无位错区及其对裂纹扩展的影响

用裂纹与位错的相互作用模拟了刃型位错从Ⅰ型裂纹尖端沿多个滑移面的发射,得到了裂纹尖端周围塑性区和无位错区的形状和大小.结果表明,与宏观断裂力学算出的塑性区形状相比,本文给出的塑性区向裂纹前方倾斜;无位错区的形状与塑性区的相似.以应变能密度因子理论为判据,当存在明显的无位错区时,塑性区使裂纹扩展的潜力下降,但扩展方向不变;而当塑性区充分发展、无位错区的作用减小或消失后,裂纹扩展的方向可能发生变化.     

Analysis of crack growth rate based on rotation at the crack tip plastic zone

The crack growth rate of a line crack is obtained from a linear elastic analysis of work required in the formation of a crack tip plastic zone. Equations of crack growth rate are derived from rigid body rotation at the root of Dugdale's plastic zone. The proposed relations are used to study the fracture behaviour of materials in tension tests and the three point bending tests. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The plastic zone ahead of a mode II plane strain crack

The problem of a mode II plane strain crack in an elastic perfectly-plastic solid is analysed. It is shown that the elastic singular field for a crack cannot be matched with the near-tip field. Hence, the usual definition of small scale yielding is inappropriate. By matching the stress field in the plastic zone with the elastic dominant field for a blunt crack near the crack line at the elastic-plastic boundary, the elastic-plastic boundary ahead of the crack is determined.

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Résumé On analyse le problème d'une fissure de mode II en état de déformation plane dans un solide élastique parfaitement plastique. On montre que le champ singulier élastique relatif à une fissure ne peut être atteint par le champ régnant au voisinage de l'extrémité de la fissure considérée. Dès lors, la définition habituelle de l'écoulement platique à petite échelle n'est pas adéquate. On détermine la limite élastique-plastique en avant de la fissure en faisant se correspondre le champ de contraintes dans la zone plastique avec le champ principal élastique correspondant à une fissure arrondie située près de la ligne de la fissure.

     

Influence of deformation anisotropy on the size of the plastic zone at the tip of an opening mode crack

The form and dimensions of the plastic zone at the tip of an opening mode crack in a plate made of a material with deformation anisotropy were investigated within the limits of the elastic solution. The anisotropy was caused by strengthening during plastic deformation until formation of cracks by loading in a straight trajectory located in the plane of the plate. It was shown that in the case of anisotropy caused by loading in a trajectory which is oriented on a normal to the crack edges the size of the plastic zone decreases and its boundaries are rotated in the direction opposite to the crack growth. Loading in a trajectory in the direction of crack growth leads to broadening of the plastic zone in the transverse direction.Translated from Problemy Prochnosti, No. 1, pp. 73–76, January, 1990.     

Effects of notch radius and anisotropy on the crack tip plastic zone

Factors which influence the shape and size of the plastic zone in the immediate vicinity of a crack tip in isotropic materials at small loads are investigated. The plastic zone dimensions for the opening mode (Mode I) have been calculated over a range of values for the crack tip radius. An increase in tip radius results in an increase in the plastic zone dimension. In anisotropic materials, the orientation of crack slit and the anisotropic yield constants are other factors that affect the plastic zone size and shape. In this paper, typical curves for the shape and size of plastic zone are given to illustrate the influence of normal or shear anisotropic yield constants. For sheet metals the effects of anisotropy on the plastic zone dimensions can be evaluated in terms of R values. Suggested values of constant b for isotropic materials are given if the “radius” approximation is employed for small applied stresses.     

An estimation of the plastic zone size for a bimaterial interfacial crack

This note deals with the size of the plastic zone ahead of an interfacial crack between two dissimilar isotropic elastic materials. Dugdale's concept of finite stress at the tip of the crack is used in the study. The plastic zone size is determined for plane stress problems under the von Mises yield condition.     

On the evaluation of the J-integral by a plastic crack tip element

Two crack tip elements are formulated for a stationary, mode I plastic crack in planar structures using hybrid assumed stress approach, based on the secant modulus and the Newton-Raphson schemes, respectively. The stress distribution in the crack tip element is assumed to be the HRR field superimposed by the regular polynomial terms. The formulated (hybrid) crack tip elements are compatible with the isoparametric element so that they can be used conveniently along with the conventional displacement-based finite elements. The intensity of the HRR stress field, the J-integral, is determined directly from the finite element equations together with the nodal displacements. The dominance of the HRR stress field at the crack tip is pertinent to the present approach, which depends on geometry and loading conditions. Since the J-integral is globally path-independent for nonlinear elastic materials (deformation plasticity model), in order to assess the accuracy and efficiency of the methodology as compared to the contour integration approach, numerical studies of common plane-stress cracked configurations are performed for these materials. The results indicate that for a sufficiently small crack tip element size, J from the present approach correlates well, within 6 percent difference, with that from the contour integration for a wide range of material hardening coefficients if the HRR zone exists at the crack tip. These highly accurate results for J from the crack tip stresses could not be achieved without using (newly) modified variational principles and a refined numerical technique. It should be emphasized that the present methodology also can be applied to cracks in J ₂ flow materials under HRR dominance. In such case, the J integral may not be globally path independent, and hence it now must be determined from the stress and strain fields near the crack tip.