MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATION OF CRACK-TIP PROCESSES IN COPPER

The crack tip processes in copper under mode II loading have been simulated by a molecular dynamics method. The nucleation, emission, dislocation free zone (DFZ) and pile-up of the dislocations are analyzed by using a suitable atom lattice configuration and Finnis & Sinclair potential. The simulated results show that the dislocation emitted always exhibits a dissociated fashion. The stress intensity factor for dislocation nucleation, DFZ and dissociated width of partial dislocations are strongly dependent on the loading rate. The stress distributions are in agreement with the elasticity solution before the dislocation emission, but are not in agreement after the emission. The dislocation can move at subsonic wave speed (less than the shear wave speed) or at transonic speed (greater than the shear wave speed but less than the longitudinal wave speed), but at the longitudinal wave speed the atom lattice breaks down.

CRACK TIP FIELD AND J-INTEGRAL WITH STRAIN GRADIENT EFFECT

The mode I plane strain crack tip field with strain gradient effects is presented in this paper based on a simplified strain gradient theory within the framework proposed by Acharya and Bassani.The theory retains the essential structure of the incremental version of the conventional J_2 deformation theory.No higher-order stress is introduced and no extra boundary value conditions beyond the conventional ones are required.The strain gradient effects are considered in the constitutive relation only through the instantaneous tangent modulus.The strain gradient measures are included into the tangent modulus as internal parameters.Therefore the boundary value problem is the same as that in the conventional theory.Two typical crack problems are studied:(a)the crack tip field under the small scale yielding condition induced by a linear elastic mode-I K-field and(b)the complete field for a compact tension specimen.The calculated results clearly show that the stress level near the crack tip with strain gradient effects is considerable higher than that in the classical theory.The singularity of the strain field near the crack tip is nearly equal to the square-root singularity and the singularity of the stress field is slightly greater than it.Consequently,the J-integral is no longer path independent and increases monotonically as the radius of the calculated circular contour decreases.

MAPPING THE DAMAGED ZONE AROUND THE CRACK TIP IN HIGH DENSITY POLYETHYLENE WITH SYNCHROTRON MICROFOCUS SMALL ANGLE X-RAY SCATTERING TECHNIQUE

The structural changes around a crack tip in a high density polyethylene were investigated by means of scanning synchrotron microfocus small-angle X-ray scattering technique. The scattering data confirm the process of craze structure development near a crack tip based on the evolution of voids. In addition, it was found that the main stress in the plastic zone near a crack tip exhibited a gradient distribution with respect to its strength and direction. The whole damaged area showed a strain distribution indicating a flow behavior toward the crack tip.

Anodic dissolution of a crack tip at AA2024-T351 in 3.5wt% NaCl solution

The anodic dissolution process of a crack tip at 2024-T351 aluminium alloy （AA2024-T351） was determined by means of scanning Kelvin probe （SKP）. Wedge-open loading （WOL） specimens were immersed in a 3.5wt% NaCl solution. After various durations of immersion, the Volta potential distributions around the crack were measured by SKP and the surface morphologies were observed by scanning electron microscopy （SEM）. It is found that there is a nonuniform distribution of Volta potential around the crack. Before immersion, the Volta potential at crack tip is more negative than that in other regions. However, after immersion, a converse result occurs with the most positive Volta potential measured at the crack tip. SEM observations demonstrate that the noticeable positive shift of Volta potential results fi：om the formation of corrosion products which deposit around the crack tip. Energy-dispersive spectrometry （EDS） analysis shows that the corrosion products are mainly A1 oxide and Cu-rich particles. These observations implicate that the applied stress contributes to the preferential anodic dissolution of the crack tip and the redistribution of Cu.

Stress field near interface crack tip of double dissimilar orthotropic composite materials

In this paper, double dissimilar orthotropic composite materials interfacial crack is studied by constructing new stress functions and employing the method of composite material complex. When the characteristic equations＇ discriminants △1 〉 0 and △2 〉0, the theoretical formula of the stress field and the displacement field near the mode I interface crack tip are derived, indicating that there is no oscillation and interembedding between the interfaces of the crack.

MODE Ⅰ CRACK TIP FIELD WITH STRAIN GRADIENT EFFECTS

A plane strain mode 1 crack tip field with strain gradient effects is investigated.A new strain gradient theory is used.An elastic-power law hardening strain gradient material is considered and two hardening laws,i.e.a separation law and an integration law are used respectively.As for the material with the separation law hardening,the angular distributions of stresses are consistent with the HRR field,which differs from the stress results;the angular distributions of couple stresses are the same as the couple stress results.For the material with the integration law hardening,the stress field and the couple stress field can not exist simultaneously,which is the same as the conclusion,but for the stress dominated field,the an- gular distributions of stresses are consistent with the HRR field;for the couple stress dominated field,the an- gular distributions of couple stresses are consistent with those in Ref.However,the increase in stresses is not observed in strain gradient plasticity because the present theory is based on the rotation gradient of the deformation only,while the crack tip field of mode 1 is dominated by the tension gradient,which will be shown in another paper.

Finite deformation analysis of crack tip fields in plastically compressible hardening–softening–hardening solids

Crack tip fields are calculated under plane strain small scale yielding conditions. The material is characterized by a finite strain elastic-viscoplastic constitutive relation with various hardening-softening-hardening hardness functions. Both plastically compressible and plastically incompressible solids are considered. Displacements corresponding to the isotropic linear elastic mode I crack field are prescribed on a remote boundary. The initial crack is taken to be a semi-circular notch and symmetry about the crack plane is imposed. Plastic compressibility is found to give an increased crack opening displacement for a given value of the applied loading. The plastic zone size and shape are found to depend on the plastic compressibility, but not much on whether material softening occurs near the crack tip. On the other hand, the near crack tip stress and deformation fields depend sensitively on whether or not material softening occurs. The combination of plastic compressibility and softening (or softening-hardening) has a particularly strong effect on the near crack tip stress and deformation fields.

Optimisation Method for Determination of Crack Tip Position Based on Gauss-Newton Iterative Technique

In the digital image correlation research of fatigue crack growth rate,the accuracy of the crack tip position determines the accuracy of the calculation of the stress intensity factor,thereby affecting the life prediction.This paper proposes a Gauss-Newton iteration method for solving the crack tip position.The conventional linear fitting method provides an iterative initial solution for this method,and the preconditioned conjugate gradient method is used to solve the ill-conditioned matrix.A noise-added artificial displacement field is used to verify the feasibility of the method,which shows that all parameters can be solved with satisfactory results.The actual stress intensity factor solution case shows that the stress intensity factor value obtained by the method in this paper is very close to the finite element result,and the relative error between the two is only−0.621%;The Williams coefficient obtained by this method can also better define the contour of the plastic zone at the crack tip,and the maximum relative error with the test plastic zone area is−11.29%.The relative error between the contour of the plastic zone defined by the conventional method and the area of the experimental plastic zone reached a maximum of 26.05%.The crack tip coordinates,stress intensity factors,and plastic zone contour changes in the loading and unloading phases are explored.The results show that the crack tip change during the loading process is faster than the change during the unloading process;the stress intensity factor during the unloading process under the same load condition is larger than that during the loading process;under the same load,the theoretical plastic zone during the unloading process is higher than that during the loading process.

MODE Ⅰ AND MODE Ⅱ CRACK TIP ASYMPTOTIC FIELDS WITH STRAIN GRADIENT EFFECTS

The strain gradient effect becomes significant when the size of frac- ture process zone around a crack tip is comparable to the intrinsic material length l, typically of the order of microns. Using the new strain gradient deformation theory given by Chen and Wang, the asymptotic fields near a crack tip in an elastic-plastic material with strain gradient effects are investigated. It is established that the dom- inant strain field is irrotational. For mode Ⅰ plane stress crack tip asymptotic field, the stress asymptotic field and the couple stress asymptotic field can not exist si- multaneously. In the stress dominated asymptotic field, the angular distributions of stresses are consistent with the classical plane stress HRR field; In the couple stress dominated asymptotic field, the angular distributions of couple stresses are consistent with that obtained by Huang et al. For mode Ⅱ plane stress and plane strain crack tip asymptotic fields, only the stress-dominated asymptotic fields exist. The couple stress asymptotic field is less singular than the stress asymptotic fields. The stress asymptotic fields are the same as mode Ⅱ plane stress and plane strain HRR fields, respectively. The increase in stresses is not observed in strain gradient plasticity for mode Ⅰ and mode Ⅱ, because the present theory is based only on the rotational gradi- ent of deformation and the crack tip asymptotic fields are irrotational and dominated by the stretching gradient.

TEM OBSERVATION OF LOCAL DEFORMATION BAND AT CRACK TIP

The thin foil specimen of a ferrite-austenite duplex stainless steel was tensiled under transmis- sion electron microscope(TEM).It was found that both in ferrite and austenite the local deformation band at crack tip was formed near to the crack propagating direction.Its forma- tion was related with the crack tip Schmid factor,dislocation shielding,latent hardening and hardening coefficient.When the crack tip emitted dislocations to a slip system by the action of pure mode Ⅱ stress resolute,and the decreasing rate of hardening coefficient was suitable,lo- cal deformation band was easy to form.

CRACK TIP STRUCTURE AND DUCTILE-BRITTLE TRANSITION IN BULK SINGLE CRYSTALS

Based on the crack tip structure a new model of ductile -brittle transition was proposed. Using this new model we calculated the dependence of the transition temperature-strain rate over a wide range of strain rate. Finally the significance of this new model is discussed in detail.

Perfect elastic-viscoplastic field at mode I dynamic propagating crack-tip

The viscosity of material is considered at propagating crack-tip. Under the assumption that the artificial viscosity coefficient is in inverse proportion to power law of the plastic strain rate, an elastic-viscoplastic asymptotic analysis is carried out for moving crack-tip fields in power-hardening materials under plane-strain condition. A continuous solution is obtained containing no discontinuities. The variations of numerical solution are discussed for mode Ⅰ crack according to each parameter. It is shown that stress and strain both possess exponential singularity. The elasticity, plasticity and viscosity of material at crack-tip only can be matched reasonably under linear-hardening condition. And the tip field contains no elastic unloading zone for mode I crack. It approaches the limiting case, crack-tip is under ultra-viscose situation and energy accumulates, crack-tip begins to propagate under different compression situations.

ANTIPLANE SHEAR FIELDS NEAR A CRACK-TIP IN A BRITTLE DAMAGED MATERIAL

In this paper,a simplified brittle damage model is proposed according to the Mazars-Lemaitre damage model for concrete.A closed-form solution for a mode Ⅲ crack is obtained based on the simplified model under small scale damage conditions,which allows for discontinuities of displacement-gradient and tangential stress on the damage boundary.It is pointed out that the discontinuities of field variables near the tip region exist for the brittle damaged material induced by the softening effect of the material.

ELASTIC-VISCOPLASTIC FIELDS NEAR THE TIP OF A PROPAGATING CRACK UNDER ANTI-PLANE SHEAR

The elastic-viscoplastic model proposed by Bingham was used to analyse the stress and strain surrounding the tip of a propagating crack under antiplane shear.The proper displacement pattern was given;the asymptotic equations were derived and solved numerically.The analysis and calculation show that for smaller viscosity the crack-tip possesses logarthmic singularity,and for larger viscosity it possesses power-law singularity.In critical case,the two kinds of singularity are consistent with each other.The result revealed the important role of viscosity for crack-tip field.

VISCOPLASTIC SOLUTION TO FIELD AT STEADILY PROPAGATING CRACK TIP IN LINEARHARDENING MATERIALS

An elastic-viscoplastic constitutive model was adopted to analyze asymptotically the tip-field of moving crack in linear-hardening materials under plane strain condition. Under the assumption that the artificial viscosity coefficient was in inverse proportion to power law of the rate of effective plastic strain, it is obtained that stress and strain both possess power law singularity and the singularity exponent is uniquely determined by the power law exponent of the rate of effective plastic strain. Variations of zoning structure according to each material parameter were discussed by means of numerical computation for the tip-field of mode II dynamic propagating crack, which show that the structure of crack tip field is dominated by hardening coefficient rather than viscosity coefficient. The secondary plastic zone can be ignored for weak hardening materials while the secondary plastic zone and the secondary elastic zone both have important influence on crack tip field for strong hardening materials. The dynamic solution approaches to the corresponding quasi-static solution when the crack moving speed goes to zero, and further approaches to the HR （Hui-Riedel） solution when the hardening coefficient is equal to zero.

Experimental analysis of crack tip fields in rubber materials under large deformation

A three-nested-deformation model is proposed to describe crack-tip fields in rubber-like materials with large deformation. The model is inspired by the distribution of the measured in-plane and out-of-plane deformation. The in- plane displacement of crack-tip fields under both Mode 1 and mixed-mode （Mode I-II） fracture conditions is measured by using the digital Moir6 method. The deformation character- istics and experimental sector division mode are investigated by comparing the measured displacement fields under differ- ent fracture modes. The out-of-plane displacement field near the crack tip is measured using the three-dimensional digital speckle correlation method.

SOME POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS OF NEAR TIP FIELDS FOR STEADY CRACK GROWTH IN ELASTIC PERFECTLY-PLASTIC MEDIA

Some possible alternative solutions of near-tip fields are studied for plane-strain Mode-I qua- si-static steady crack growth in incompressible(v=1/2)elastic perfectly-plastic media.A group of four-sector so- lutions and a three-sector solution in which the elastic-unloading region vanishes are given.Stress functions,plas- tic flow factors and plastic strains in each region are also given.

A numerical method for multiple cracks in an infinite elastic plate

This article examines the interaction of multiple cracks in an infinite plate by using a numerical method. The numerical method 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 numerical method implementation, the left or the right crack tip element is placed locally at the corresponding left or right crack tip on top of the constant displacement discontinuity elements that cover the entire crack surface and the other boundaries. The numerical method is called a hybrid displacement discontinuity method. The following test examples of crack problems in an infinite plate under tension are included: “ center-inclined cracked plate”, “interaction of two collinear cracks with equal length”, “interaction of three collinear cracks with equal length”, “interaction of two parallel cracks with equal length”, and “interaction of one horizontal crack and one inclined crack”. The present numerical results show that the numerical method is simple yet very accurate for analyzing the interaction of multiple cracks in an infinite plate.

CRACK TIP SUPERBLUNTING:EXPERIMENT,THEORY AND NUMERICAL SIMULATION

Experimental revelation of superblunting along plane strain predominant crack tip segment is re- ported here for modified polyproplene.As elucidated by a heuristic model of progressive circumferential cold-draw,the formation of superblunting crack tip depends critically on the ratio between the cold-draw prop- agation speed and the loading speed,and contributes significantly to the material toughening,especially for the improvement in impact toughness.Detailed numerical calculations are conducted based on a hyperelastic-viscoplastic and anisotropic damage constitutive model at finite deformation.The simulated results recapitulate the essential features of crack tip superblunting.

EXPERIMENTAL GH SINGULARITY FIELD AROUND GROWING CRACK-TIP

The displacement fields u_x,u_y at growing crack tip of LYI2-M specimens with double edge cracks are measured using moire method.The experimental singularity fields are compared with GH theoretical field [12-14].The size and shape of the experimental GH singularity fields are obtained.The error in both the experimental and theoretical evaluations is controlled within ±10%.The experiments show that there is (In A/r)^(+1)singularity dominant around a growing crack tip.The shape of this dominant region ranges from butterfly wing to oblate and circular.Inside GH-field,there is a 3-D deformed damage zone where no GH sin- gularity exists.