Fully plastic analyses of unequally notched specimens in bending

This paper proposes slip line fields for bending of unequally notched specimens in plane strain, that have a sharp crack in one side and a sharp V-notch in the other side. Depending on the back angle, two slip line fields are proposed, from which the limit moment and crack tip stress fields are obtained as a function of the back angle. Excellent agreement between slip line field solutions with those from detailed finite element limit analysis based on non-hardening plasticity provides confidence in the proposed slip line fields. One interesting point is that, for the unequally notched specimen, the difference between the crack tip triaxial stress for tension and that for bending increases significantly with the increase in the back angle. This suggests that such a specimen could be potentially useful to investigate the crack tip constraint effect on fracture toughness of materials. In this respect, the possibility of designing a new toughness testing specimen with varying crack tip constraint is discussed.