Micro-crack initiation at tip of a rigid line inhomogeneity in piezoelectric materials

For the square-root singularity shear stress found at the tip of a rigid line inhomogeneity (an anti-crack) in piezoelectric media, one possible way of releasing high strain energy is to initiate a micro-crack at the inhomogeneity tip. In our current study, a dislocation pileup model for micro-crack initiation at the inhomogeneity tip is proposed based on Zener-Stroh crack initiation mechanism. An interesting and important physical result that emerges from the analysis is that the critical stress intensity factor for the anti-crack (the line inhomogeneity) can be related to the fracture toughness of a conventional Griffith crack in the same material. Analytical results further show that under mechanical loading, the critical stress and electric displacement intensity factors of an anti-crack are only related to the corresponding intensity factors of stress and electric displacement of the crack, respectively. While if the anti-crack is under displacement loading (with net dislocation pile-up at the inhomogeneity tip), the critical stress and electric displacement intensity factors of an anti-crack depend on both of the total mechanical dislocations b_T and electricity dislocations b_D.     

Distribution of dislocations at a mode I crack tip and their shielding effect

Distribution of dislocations at a finite mode I crack tip is formulated. Closed form solutions for the dislocation distribution function, the dislocation-free zone (DFZ), the local stress intensity factor and the crack tip stress field are obtained. The dislocation distribution has similar features to a mode III crack model. Under a given applied stress, there may exist different configurations of plastic zone and DFZ. Crack tip shielding by dislocations depends on both applied stresses and the configuration.     

Micro-crack initiation at the tip of a semi-infinite rigid line inhomogeneity in piezoelectric solids

A dislocation emission mechanism for micro-crack initiation at the tip of a semi-infinite rigid line inhomogeneity in a piezoelectric solid is proposed in the present paper. For a rigid line inhomogeneity embedded in a piezoelectric matrix, dislocations of one sign are driven away from the tip due to high stress level, while the stationary dislocations of the opposite sign are left behind near the tip of the inhomogeneity. As a result, a micro-Zener–Stroh crack is initiated ahead of the line inhomogeneity. In the current study, a dislocation pileup mechanism for micro-crack initiation at the inhomogeneity tip is proposed. An interesting result is that the critical stress intensity factors for a line inhomogeneity perpendicular to the poling direction can be related to the fracture toughness of a conventional crack in the same material. Analytical solutions show that the critical plane shear stress intensity factor depends on the plane shear mechanical and displacement loadings, and the critical opening stress and electric displacement intensity factors depend on not only the mechanical and displacement loadings, but the electric field and displacement loadings as well.     

Pile-up of screw dislocations at a circular inclusion

The behaviour of a pile-up of screw dislocations at a circular inclusion, with its tip away from the interface is analyzed using the method of continuously distributed dislocations. This leads for the first time, to a distribution function representing a shear crack at the inclusion. The stress required to extend the crack is derived and some new conclusions drawn on the deformation and fracture behaviour of the two-phase systems.     

On the contact zone of a subinterfacial Zener-Stroh crack

Summary A Zener-Stroh crack is initiated by dislocations pile-up. Due to this displacement loading mechanism, only one of the two crack tips is sharp, and crack propagation is possible along the sharp tip only. When such a crack is initiated near an interface, the crack faces behind the sharp crack tip may contact each other due to material mismatch and loading combination. In the present study, a subinterface Zener-Stroh crack is analyzed with contact zone consideration near the tip. The problem is formulated as a set of nonlinear Cauchy-type singular integral equations which are solved numerically using Erdogan and Gupta's method. The physically pathological features of interpenetration of the crack surfaces and oscillation of the near tip fields are eliminated in the solutions due to the presence of a contact zone near the crack tip. It is found that the normal traction is bounded at the crack tip where a contact zone exists; while the shear traction has square-root singularities at both the crack tips. This result, is totally different to the case of an interface crack where Mode I and Mode II stress intensity factors, are inter-related at the sharp crack tip.     

Interaction between a surface crack and a subsurface inclusion

A numerical method for the integration of the singular integral equation resulting from the interaction of a surface crack with a subsurface inclusion is presented. The crack is modelled as a pile-up of dislocations, and the dislocation density function is partitioned into three parts: A singular term due to the load discontinuity imposed by the inclusion, a square root singular term from the crack tip, and a bounded and continuous residual term. By integrating the singular terms explicitly the well behaved residual dislocation density function only has to be determined numerically, together with the intensity of the square root singular term. The method is applied to the determination of the stress intensity factor for a surface crack growing towards and through a circular inclusion whose diameter is equal to the distance from the free surface, and to the determination of the characteristic stress intensity factors when the crack enters the inclusion and leaves it for arbitrary ratios between the inclusion diameter and the distance from the surface.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of crack growth under cyclic loading

The mechanical behaviors around a crack tip for a system including both a crack and two tilt grain boundaries under cyclic loading are examined using a molecular dynamics simulation. Not only a phase transition but also the emission of edge dislocations is observed in order to relax stress concentration around a crack tip during the first loading. Then, a dislocation pile-up is formed near the grain boundary after the edge dislocations reach the grain boundary, because they cannot move beyond the grain boundary. During the first unloading, the edge dislocations emitted from the crack tip return to the crack tip and disappear in the system. We observe several vacancies generated around the crack tip and crack growth corresponding to an atomic scale during cyclic loading. Conclusively, we propose the fatigue crack growth mechanism for the initial phase of the fatigue fracture. That is, a fatigue crack propagates due to coalescence of the crack and the vacancies caused by the emission and absorption of dislocations.     

An accurate method for solving crack problems with discontinuous crack-line tractions

A numerical method for the integration of the singular integral equation resulting from a surface crack with discontinuous tractions is presented. The crack is modelled as a pile-up of dislocations, and the dislocation density function is partitioned into three terms: A singular term due to the traction discontinuity, a square-root-singular term from the crack tip, and a bounded and continuous residual term. By integrating the singular terms explicitly only a well-behaved residual dislocation density function has to be determined numerically, together with the intensity of the square-root-singular term. The method is applied to the determination of stress intensity factors for a surface crack growing towards, and through, a circular inclusion, and to a surface crack growing into a zone of phase-transformable material.     

TEM observations of dislocation emission at crack tips in aluminium

Direct observations were made of the propagation of ductile cracks and associated dislocation behaviour at crack tips in aluminium during tensile deformation in an electron microscope. In the electropolished area, the cracks propagated as a Mode III shear-type by emitting screw dislocations on a plane coplanar to the crack plane. A zone free of dislocations was observed between the crack tip and the plastic zone. As the cracks propagated into thicker areas, the fracture mode changed from Mode III to predominantly Mode I. The crack top of the Mode I cracks was blunted by emitting edge dislocations on planes inclined to the crack plane. The blunted cracks did not propagate until the area ahead of the crack tip was sufficiently thinned by plastic deformation. The cracks then propagated abruptly, apparently without emitting dislocations. The stress intensity factor was measured from the crack tip geometry of Mode III cracks and it was found to be in good agreement with the critical value of the stress intensity factor required for dislocation generation.     

The condition for the cyclic plastic deformation of the crack tip: the influence of dislocation obstacles

The stress intensity range below which no cyclic plastic deformation at the crack tip and, hence, no fatigue crack propagation occurs is investigated. The emission of dislocations from the crack tip is assumed as mechanism for the dislocation generation. For a mode III crack, a computer simulation is carried out to study the influence of dislocation obstacles. Both the distance between the crack tip and the obstacle and the strength of the obstacle are varied and the characteristic dislocation arrangements are shown.The stress intensity range necessary to return one dislocation to the crack tip is mainly controlled by the critical stress intensity factor sufficient to emit a dislocation. The influence of the obstacles is not very significant.     

Comparison of elastic interaction of a dislocation and a crack for four bonding conditions of the crack plane

A comparison of elastic interaction of a dislocation and a crack for four bonding conditions of the crack plane was made. Four cases of single crystalline material, sliding grain boundary, perfectly bonded interface, and sliding interface were considered. The stress intensity factors arising from edge and screw dislocations and their image forces for the above four cases were compared. The stress intensity factor at a crack tip along the perfectly bonded interface arising from screw dislocation can be obtained from that in a single crystalline material if the shear modulus in the single crystalline material is replaced by the harmonic mean of both shear moduli in the bimaterial. The stress intensity factor at a crack tip along the sliding interface arising from edge dislocation in the bimaterial can be obtained from that along the sliding grain boundary in the single material if the μ/(1−ν) in the single material is substituted by the harmonic mean of μ/(1− ν) in the bimaterial where μ and ν are the shear modulus and Poisson's ratio, respectively. The solutions of screw dislocation near a crack along the sliding grain boundary and sliding interface are the same as that of screw dislocation and its mirror image. Generally, the effect of edge dislocation for perfectly bonded interface on the crack propagation is more pronounced than that for the sliding interface. The effect of edge dislocation on the crack propagation is mixed mode for the cases of perfectly bonded interface and single crystalline material, but mode I fracture for the cases of sliding interface and sliding grain boundary. All curves of Fx versus distance r from the dislocation at interface to the right-hand crack tip are similar to one another regardless of dislocation source for both sliding interface and perfectly bonded interface. The level of Fx for m=0 is larger than that for m=−1. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

In-situ Observation of Initiation and Propagation of Cleavage Microcrack in TiAl

Nucleating and propagating of nancrack formed in dislocation free zone (DFZ) for the brittle TiAl alloy has been studied through in-situ tensile test in TEM and analyzed using microfracture mechanics. The resufts show that a lot of dislocations can be emitted from a crack tip when the applied stress intensity Kla i5 larger than the stress intensity for dislocatin emission Kle=1.4 M Pa·m1/2 and a dislocation free zone, which smetimes is a close zone, can form after reaching equilibrium. The DFZ is a elastic zone with large strain and then the stress in the DFZmight equal to the cohesive strength σth because the crack tip is still sharp. When Kla is larger than the stress intensity for nanocrack nucleation Kli =2.4 M Pa·m1/2, the stress within a certain range in the DFZ would equal to σth and then a nanocrack initiates in the DFZ or sometimes at the notch tip. The nanocrack formed in the DFZ is stable and can propagate a small distance in cleavage mode through multiplication and movement of dislocation in the plastic zone, during keeping constant displacement. Increasing Kla can make the crack stably propagate continuously or discontinuously and it means that the stre5s intensity for crack propagation, Klp, is larger than Kli. Therefre, Kle 相似文献   

Elastic cracks and screw dislocation pile-ups crossing a bimaterial interface

The concept of continuously distributed dislocations is employed to study the behavior of anti-plane shear cracks crossing a bimaterial interface. The governing equations of the dislocation distribution function are dual singular integral equations. It is noticed that close to the tip, the crack opening displacement behaves as if the crack were imbedded in a homogeneous medium. C onsequendy, the stress in the immediate vicinity of the crack tip varies with the inverse square root of the distance from the tip. Moreover, the stress intensity near the crack tip in the comparatively harder phase is higher than that in the softer phase. The present method of analysis can be applied to the study of screw dislocation pile-ups crossing a phase boundary.     

The Behavior of Screw Dislocations Emitted from a Star Crack with a Central Hole

The behavior of screw dislocations emitted from a star crack with a central hole was investigated using discrete dislocation modeling. Cracks are uniformly distributed along the circumference of a circular hole. Dislocations are assumed to be emitted one by one from the crack tips along the radial direction. Each emitted dislocation moves along the radial direction and its velocity is proportional to the third power of the effective shear stress. A dislocation-free zone exists based on the assumption that the crack tip must overcome an energy barrier to emit a dislocation. The effects of the central hole, slit crack, number of cracks and applied stress on the plastic zone, total number of dislocations emitted from all crack tips and the first crack tip, and the dislocation-free zone were studied for a given friction stress. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Microcrack initiation at tip of a rigid line inhomogeneity

A dislocation emission mechanism for microcrack initiation at tip of a rigid line inhomogeneity is proposed in the present paper. For a rigid line inhomogeneity embedded in a ductile matrix, it has been observed that dislocations of one sign are driven away from the tip due to high stress level; while the stationary dislocations of the opposite sign are left behind near the tip of the line inhomogeneity. As the result, a Zener-Stroh crack is initiated at the tip of the inhomogeneity. A very interesting and important result that emerged from the analysis is that the critical stress intensity factor for a line inhomogeneity can be related to the fracture toughness of a crack in the same material.     

Screw dislocation in the two-phase isotropic thin film of an interfacial crack

The screw dislocation in the two-phase isotropic thin film of an interfacial crack has been investigated. The stress field, stress intensity factors at the crack tip and for dislocation emission, crack extension force, strain energy and the image force on the dislocation are obtained and found to be related to the thickness and effective shear modulus. The effect of size on fracture is pronounced when the thickness is smaller than the distance between dislocation and crack tip by a factor of 1000. The effect of the second phase on fracture is pronounced when μ⁽²⁾/μ⁽¹⁾ is in the range from 0.01 to 100. Newton's third law is proved to be valid for any thickness and shear modulus ratio. This result can be reduced to three special cases.     

The elastic interaction of screw dislocations and a star crack with a central hole

The elastic interaction of screw dislocations and a star crack with a central hole was investigated. The complex potential of the present problem was obtained from that of an internal crack in an infinite medium using the conformal mapping technique. The stress field, image force and strain energy of dislocation, and stress intensity factor at the crack tip were derived. The critical stress intensity factor for dislocation emission was calculated based on the spontaneous dislocation emission criterion. The influence of the ratio of crack length to hole radius, crack number, and dislocation source on the above mechanical variables were studied. The present solution was reduced to several special cases previously reported in the literature.     

The interaction between screw dislocations and an interfacial blunt crack and a sharp crack

The interaction between screw dislocations and an interfacial blunt crack and a sharp crack under loads at infinity is dealt with. Utilizing the Muskhelishvili complex variable method, the closed form solutions are derived. The stress intensity factor and critical stress intensity factor for dislocation emission are also calculated. The results show that the shielding effect increases with the increase of the shear modulus and the distance between the two cracks, but decreases with the increase of dislocation azimuth. The critical loads at infinity for dislocation emission increase with the increment of the emission angle and the distance.     

Elastic interaction between screw dislocations and the internal crack near a free surface

The elastic interaction between screw dislocation and the internal crack near a free surface has been investigated. The stress intensity factor at the crack tip, crack extension force, the image force on the dislocation are affected by the free surface. The number and nature of dislocations, m, inside the crack also play an important role in fracture. In order to understand the plastic zone, the zero-force points of dislocation along the x-axis are involved. The dislocation emitted from the right-hand crack tip is enhanced by positive m and reduced by negative m. On the other hand, if the internal crack is closer to the free surface, a dislocation generated from the right-hand crack tip is easier for negative m and more difficult for positive m. However, the role of m on the dislocation emission for the left-hand crack tip is opposite to that for the right-hand crack tip. Finally, three special cases can be obtained from our results. (1) The interaction between a dislocation and a surface crack; (2) the interaction between a dislocation and an internal crack; (3) the interaction between two dislocations.     

A general method for solving dynamically accelerating multiple co-linear cracks

We present a general method for analyzing dynamically accelerating multiple co-linear cracks that can be applied to the contexts of plane strain or antiplane shear in an elastic material. The difficulty in solving such problems lies in the fact that the space-time regions containing known data evolve as the crack propagates in an a priori unknown manner. Using an analog to a Dirichlet-to-Neumann map, we can find complete knowledge of the stress and displacement along the fracture plane, facilitating the application of fracture criteria that require these values away from the crack tip. The method is demonstrated for a semi-infinite or finite mode III crack as well as for a pair of cracks in elastic material, using a stress intensity factor fracture criterion for simplicity.