Stress intensity factors of an inclined elliptical crack near a bimaterial interface

In this paper the stress intensity factors are discussed for an inclined elliptical crack near a bimaterial interface. The solution utilizes the body force method and requires Green’s functions for perfectly bonded semi-infinite bodies. The formulation leads to a system of hypersingular integral equation whose unknowns are three modes of crack opening displacements. In the numerical calculation, unknown body force densities are approximated by using fundamental density functions and polynomials. The results show that the present method yields smooth variations of stress intensity factors along the crack front accurately. Distributions of stress intensity factors are presented in tables and figures with varying the shape of crack, distance from the interface, and elastic modulus ratio. It is found that the inclined crack can be evaluated by the models of vertical and parallel cracks within the error of 24% even for the cracks very close to the interface.     

Effect of curvature at the crack tip on the stress intensity factor for curved cracks

In this paper, the numerical solution of the hypersingular integral equation using the body force method in curved crack problems is presented. In the body force method, the stress fields induced by two kinds of standard set of force doublets are used as fundamental solutions. Then, the problem is formulated as a system of integral equations with the singularity of the form r ^–2. In the numerical calculation, two kinds of unknown functions are approximated by the products of the fundamental density functions and power series. The calculation shows that the present method gives rapidly converging numerical results for curved cracks under various geometrical conditions. In addition, a method of evaluation of the stress intensity factors for arbitrary shaped curved cracks is proposed using the approximate replacement to a simple straight crack.     

Variations of stress intensity factor of a semi-elliptical surface crack subjected to mixed mode loading

Maximum stress intensity factors of a surface crack usually appear at the deepest point of the crack, or a certain point along crack front near the free surface depending on the aspect ratio of the crack. However, generally it has been difficult to obtain smooth distributions of stress intensity factors along the crack front accurately due to the effect of corner point singularity. It is known that the stress singularity at a corner point where the front of 3 D cracks intersect free surface is depend on Poisson's ratio and different from the one of ordinary crack. In this paper, a singular integral equation method is applied to calculate the stress intensity factor along crack front of a 3-D semi-elliptical surface crack in a semi-infinite body under mixed mode loading. The body force method is used to formulate the problem as a system of singular integral equations with singularities of the form r ⁻³ using the stress field induced by a force doublet in a semi-infinite body as fundamental solution. In the numerical calculation, unknown body force densities are approximated by using fundamental density functions and polynomials. The results show that the present method yields smooth variations of mixed modes stress intensity factors along the crack front accurately. Distributions of stress intensity factors are indicated in tables and figures with varying the elliptical shape and Poisson's ratio.     

Variation of stress intensity factor and crack opening displacement of semi-elliptical surface crack

In this paper a singular integral equation method is applied to calculate the stress intensity factor along crack front of a 3D surface crack. Stress field induced by body force doublet in a semi infinite body is used as a fundamental solution. Then the problem is formulated as an integral equation with a singularity of the form of r ^-3. In solving the integral equations, the unknown functions of body force densities are approximated by the product of a polynomial and a fundamental density function; that is, the exact density distribution to make an elliptical crack in an infinite body. The calculation shows that the present method gives the smooth variation of stress intensity factors along the crack front and crack opening displacement along the crack surface for various aspect ratios and Poisson's ratio. The present method gives rapidly converging numerical results and highly satisfactory boundary conditions throughout the crack boundary.     

Variation of stress intensity factor along the front of a 3D rectangular crack by using a singular integral equation method

In this paper a singular integral equation method is applied to calculate the distribution of stress intensity factor along the crack front of a 3D rectangular crack. The stress field induced by a body force doublet in an infinite body is used as the fundamental solution. Then, the problem is formulated as an integral equation with a singularity of the form of r ^–3. In solving the integral equation, the unknown functions of body force densities are approximated by the product of a polynomial and a fundamental density function, which expresses stress singularity along the crack front in an infinite body. The calculation shows that the present method gives smooth variations of stress intensity factors along the crack front for various aspect ratios. The present method gives rapidly converging numerical results and highly satisfied boundary conditions throughout the crack boundary.     

The effect of an elliptical inclusion on a crack

The interaction between an elliptical inclusion and a crack is analyzed by body force method. The investigated stress field is simulated by superposing the fundamental solutions for a point force applied at a point in an infinite plate containing an elliptical inclusion. Based on numerical results, effects of the inclusion shape on the crack tip stress intensity factor are discussed. It is found that for small cracks emanating from a stress-higher point on the inclusion interface the stress intensity factors are mainly determined by the stresses, occurring at the crack starting point before the crack initiation, and the inclusion root radius, besides the crack length. However, for the cracks occurring in a stress-lower region around the inclusion, it is difficult to characterize the effect of the inclusion geometry on the stress intensity factors of small cracks by the inclusion root radius alone. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Computation of stress intensity factors of interface cracks based on interaction energy release rates and BEM sensitivity analysis

Stress intensity factors of bimaterial interface cracks are evaluated based on the interaction energy release rates. The interaction energy release rate is defined based on the energy release rates of a cracked body, corresponding to two independent loading conditions, actual field and an auxiliary field, and is related to the sensitivities of the potential energies for crack extensions. The potential energy of a cracked body is expressed with a domain integral, which is converted to a boundary integral expression by applying the divergence theorem. By differentiating this expression with the crack length, a boundary integral expression for the interaction energy release rate is obtained. The boundary integral representation for the interaction energy release rate involves the displacement, the traction, and their sensitivity coefficients with respect to the crack length. The boundary element sensitivity analyses are used to calculate these quantities accurately. A regularized boundary integral equation relating the boundary displacement and traction is differentiated with respect to an arbitrary shape parameter to derive the regularized boundary integral equation for the sensitivity coefficients of the boundary displacement and traction. The proposed approach is applied to several cracks in dissimilar media and the results are compared with those obtained by the conventional approach based on the extrapolation method. The analytical displacement and stress solutions for an interface crack between two infinite dissimilar media subjected to uniform stresses at infinity are used to give the auxiliary field, in which the values of the stress intensity factors are known. It is demonstrated that the present method can give accurate results for the stress intensity factors of various bimaterial interface cracks under coarse mesh discretizations.     

Boundary element analysis of thermal stress intensity factors for interface griffith and cusp cracks

The thermal stress intensity factors for interface cracks of Griffith and symmetric lip cusp types under vertical uniform heat flow in a finite body are calculated by the boundary element method. The boundary conditions on the crack surfaces are insulated or fixed to constant temperature. The relationship between the stress intensity factors and the displacements on the nodal point of a crack-tip element is derived. The numerical values of the thermal stress intensity factors for an interface Griffith crack in an infinite body are compared with the previous solutions. The thermal stress intensity factors for a symmetric lip cusp interface crack in a finite body are calculated with respect to various effective crack lengths, configuration parameters, material property ratios and the thermal boundary conditions on the crack surfaces. Under the same outer boundary conditions, there are no appreciable differences in the distribution of thermal stress intensity factors with respect to each material property. However, the effect of crack surface thermal boundary conditions on the thermal stress intensity factors is considerable.     

Stress intensity factors for an interface crack along an elliptical inclusion

The problem of a crack along the interface of an elliptical elastic inclusion embedded in an infinite plate subjected to uniform stresses at infinity is analyzed by the body force method. The crack tip stress intensity factors are calculated for various inclusion geometries and material combinations. Based on numerical results, the effect of the inclusion geometry on the stress intensity factors is investigated. It is found that for small interface cracks the stress intensity factors are mainly determined by the stresses, occurring at the crack center point before the crack initiation, and interface curvature radius alone.     

Numerical solutions of singular integral equations having Cauchy-type singular kernel by means of expansion method

This paper is concerned with numerical solutions of singular integral equations with Cauchy-type singular kernel. It is well-known that this type of singular integral equations appears in the analysis of crack problems using the continuously distributed dislocation method. In addition, it also appears in the analysis of notch problems using the body force method. In the present analysis, the unknown function of densities of dislocations and body forces are approximated by the product of the fundamental density functions and polynomials. The accuracy of stress intensity factors and stress concentration factors obtained by the present method is verified through the comparison with the exact solution and the reliable numerical solution obtained by other researchers. The present method is found to give good convergency of the numerical results for notch problem as well as internal and edge crack problems.     

Axisymmetric boundary integral equation analysis of interface cracks between dissimilar materials

The numerical boundary integral equation (BIE) method with quadratic quarter-point crack-tip singular elements is used to analyse interface cracks between dissimilar material in axisymmetry. Such crack problems present modelling difficulties using conventional procedures for obtaining the stress intensity factors. This is because of the oscillatorily singular nature of the stresses in the vicinity of the bimaterial interface crack-tip. Analytical expressions for the direct evaluation of the fracture characterising parameters from the BIE numerical results of displacements or tractions are derived. Three different crack problems are investigated, two of which have known solutions in the literature. Excellent agreement between the BIE results and these other established solutions are obtained even with relatively coarse mesh discretisations. The present study illustrates the ease with which the BIE method may be used in the fracture analysis of both straight and curved binaterial interface cracks.     

Multiple interfacial cracks in dissimilar piezoelectric layers under time harmonic loadings

In this study, the dislocation‐based model is developed to study the interaction between time‐harmonic elastic waves and multiple interface cracks in 2 bonded dissimilar piezoelectric layers. In this model, cracks are represented by a distribution of so‐called electro‐elastic dislocations whose density is to be determined by satisfying the boundary conditions. Using the Fourier transform, this formulation leads to 2 singular integral equations, which can be solved numerically for the densities of electro‐elastic dislocations on a crack surface. The formulation is used to determine dynamic field intensity factors for multiple interface cracks without limitation of number of cracks. The dynamic field intensity factors are then calculated for both permeable and impermeable crack, and finally, numerical results are presented to illustrate the variation of these quantities with the electromechanical coupling, crack spacing, and the frequency of loading.     

Interface cracks with initial opening under harmonic loading

The study is devoted to the application of boundary integral equations to problems for interface cracks with initial opening under harmonic loading. As a numerical example the initially opened linear interface crack under the normally incident tension–compression wave is considered. The problem is solved taking the contact interaction of the crack’s faces into account. The convergence of the iterative algorithm is analysed and the stress intensity factors (opening and transverse shear modes) are given for the wide range of the wave number.     

Tension of a cylindrical bar having an infinite row of circumferential cracks

In this paper, the crack problems in the case of a cylindrical bar having a circumferential crack and a cylindrical bar having an infinite row of circumferential cracks under tension are analyzed by the body force method. The stress field for a periodic array of ring forces in an infinite body is used to solve the problems. The solution is obtained by superposing the stress fields of ring forces in order to satisfy a given boundary condition. The stress intensity factors are calculated for various geometrical conditions. The obtained values of stress intensity factor of a single circumferential crack are considered to be more reliable than the results of other paper's. As the crack becomes very shallow, the stress intensity factor of a row of circumferential cracks approaches the value corresponding to that of a row of edge cracks in a semi-infinite plate under tension. As the crack becomes very deep, it approaches the values corresponding to that of a single deep circumferential crack.     

Numerical solutions of the singular integral equations in the crack analysis using the body force method

In this paper, numerical solutions of the singular integral equations of the body force method in the crack problems are discussed. The stress fields induced by two kinds of displacement discontinuity are used as fundamental solutions. Then, the problem is formulated as a hypersingular integral equation with the singularity of the form r ². In the numerical calculation, two kinds of unknown functions are approximated by the products of the fundamental density function and the Chebyshev polynomials. As examples, the stress intensity factors of the oblique edge crack, kinked crack, branched crack and zig-zag crack are analyzed. The calculation shows that the present method gives accurate results even for the extremely oblique edge crack and kinked crack with extremely short bend which has been difficult to analyze by the previous method using the approximation by the products of the fundamental density function and the stepped functions etc.     

A New Boundary Element for Plane Elastic Problems Involving Cracks and Holes

By applying the new boundary integral formulation proposed recently by Chau and Wang (1997) for two-dimensional elastic bodies containing cracks and holes, a new boundary element method for calculating the interaction between cracks and holes is presented in this paper. Singular interpolation functions of order r^-1/2 (where r is the distance measured from the crack tip) are introduced for the discretization of the crack near the crack tips, such that stress singularity can be modeled appropriately. A nice feature for our implementation is that singular integrands involved at the element level are integrated analytically. For each of the hole boundaries, an additional unknown constant is introduced such that the displacement compatibility condition can be satisfied exactly by the complex boundary function H(t), which is a combination of the traction and displacement density. Another nice feature of the present formulation is that the stress intensity factors (both K_{_I} and K_{_II}) at crack tips are expressed in terms of the nodal unknown of H(t) exactly, and no extrapolation of numerical data is required. To demonstrate the accuracy of the present boundary element method, various crack problems are considered: (i) the Griffith crack problem, (ii) the interaction problem between a circular hole and a straight crack subject to both far field tension and compression, and (iii) the interaction problem between a circular hole and a kinked crack subject to far field uniaxial tension. Excellent agreement with existing results is observed for the first two problems and also for the last problem if the crack-hole interaction is negligible. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A numerical analysis of cracks emanating from a square hole in a rectangular plate under biaxial loads

This note concerns with stress intensity factors of cracks emanating from a square hole in rectangular plate under biaxial loads by means of the boundary element method which consists of the non-singular displacement discontinuity element presented by Crouch and Starfied and the crack tip displacement discontinuity elements proposed by the author. In the boundary element implementation the left or the right crack tip displacement discontinuity element is placed locally at corresponding left or right crack tip on top of the constant displacement discontinuity elements that cover the entire crack surface and the other boundary. The present numerical results illustrate that the present approach is very effective and accurate for calculating stress intensity factors of complicated cracks in a finite plate and can reveal the effect of the biaxial load and the cracked body geometry on stress intensity factors.     

基于X-SBFEM的裂纹体非网格重剖分耦合模型研究

扩展有限元法利用了非网格重剖分技术,但需要基于裂尖解析解构造复杂的插值基函数,计算精度受网格疏密和插值基函数等因素影响。比例边界有限元法则在求解无限域和裂尖奇异性问题优势明显,两者衔接于有限元法理论内,可建立一种结合二者优势的断裂耦合数值模型。该文从虚功原理出发,利用位移协调与力平衡机制,提出了一种断裂计算的新方法X-SBFEM,达到了扩展有限元模拟裂纹主体、比例边界有限元模拟裂尖的目的。在数值算例中,通过边裂纹和混合型裂纹的应力强度因子计算,并与理论解对比,验证了该方法的准确性和有效性。     

Generalized Kelvin solution based boundary element method for crack problems in multilayered solids

This paper presents a new boundary element method (BEM) for linear elastic fracture mechanics in three-dimensional multilayered solids. The BEM is based on a generalized Kelvin solution. The generalized Kelvin solution is the fundamental singular solution for a multilayered elastic solid subject to point concentrated body-forces. For solving three-dimensional elastic crack problems in a finite region, a multi-region method is also employed in the present BEM. For crack problems in an infinite space, a large finite body is used to approximate the infinite body. In addition, eight-node traction-singular boundary elements are used in representing the displacements and tractions in the vicinity of a crack front. The incorporation of the generalized Kelvin solution into the boundary integral formulation has the advantages in elimination of the element discretization at the interfaces of different elastic layers. Three numerical examples are presented to illustrate the proposed method for the calculation of stress intensity factors for cracks in layered solids. The results obtained using the proposed method are well compared with the existing results available in the relevant literature.     

Analysis of elliptical cracks perpendicular to the interface of two joined transversely isotropic solids

This paper presents a boundary element analysis of elliptical cracks in two joined transversely isotropic solids. The boundary element method is developed by incorporating the fundamental singular solution for a concentrated point load in a transversely isotropic bi-material solid of infinite space into the conventional displacement boundary integral equations. The multi-region method is used to analyze the crack problems. The traction-singular elements are employed to capture the singularity around the crack front. The values of stress intensity factors (SIFs) are obtained by using crack opening displacements. The results of the proposed method compare well with the existing exact solutions for an elliptical crack parallel to the isotropic plane of a transversely isotropic solid of infinite extent. Elliptical cracks perpendicular to the interface of transversely isotropic bi-material solids of either infinite extent or occupying a cubic region are further examined in detail. The crack surfaces are subject to the uniform normal tractions. The stress intensity factor values of the elliptical cracks of the two types are analyzed and compared. Numerical results have shown that the stress intensity factors are strongly affected by the anisotropy and the combination of the two joined solids.