Lec.
2:
(2) A crack in a structure:
- Consider a structure in which a crack develops.
- Due to the application of repeated loads or due to a combination
of loads and environmental attack, this crack will grow with time.
- The longer the crack, the higher the stress concentration induced
by it.
- This implies that the rate of crack propagation will increase with
time.
- The crack as a function of time can be represented by a rising
curve as in Fig.(5a) .
- Due to presence of the crack, the strength of the structure is
decreased: it is lower than the strength it was designed for.
- The residual strength of the structure decreases progressively
with increasing crack size, as is shown in Fig.(5b).
1
Fig.(5): The engineering problem
(a) Crack growth curve, (b) Residual strength curve.
2
- After a certain time, the residual strength has become so low that the
structure cannot withstand accidental high loads.
- From this moment on, the structure is liable to fail.
- If such accidental high loads do not occur, the crack will continue to
grow until the residual strength has become so low that fracture
occurs under normal service loading.
- Many structures are designed to service loads that are enough to
initiate cracks, particularly when pre-existing flaws or stress
concentrations are present.
- The designer has to anticipate this possibility of cracking and
consequently he has to accept a certain risk that the structure will fail.
- This implies that the structure can have a limited lifetime.
- Of course, the probability of failure should be at an acceptable low
level during the whole service lifetime.
3
- In order to ensure this safety, it has to be predicted how the cracks will
grow and how fast that the residual strength will decrease.
- Making these predictions and developing prediction methods are the
objects of fracture mechanics.
- With respect to Fig.(5), fracture mechanics should be able to answer
the following questions:
a) What is the residual strength as a function of crack size?
b) What size of crack can be tolerated at the expected service load, i. e.,
what is the critical crack size?
c) How long does it take for a crack to grow from a certain initial size to
the critical size?
d) What size of pre-existing flaw can be permitted at the moment the
structure starts its service life?
e) How often should the structure be inspected for cracks?
- Fracture mechanics provide satisfactory answers to some of these
questions and useful answers to the others.
4
- As depicted in Fig.(6), several disciplines are involved in the
development of fracture mechanics design procedures.
Fig.(6): The broad field of fracture mechanics x
5
- At the right end of the scale is the engineering load-and-stress
analysis.
- Applied mechanics provide the crack tip stress fields as well as the
elastic and (to a certain extent) plastic deformations of the material
in the vicinity of the crack.
- The predictions made about fracture strength can be checked
experimentally.
- Materials science concerns itself with the fracture processes on
the scale of atoms and dislocations to that of impurities and grains.
- From a comprehension of these processes, criteria which govern
growth and fracture should be obtainable.
- These criteria have to be used to predict the behavior of a crack in
a given stress-strain field. X
6
(3) The stress at a crack tip:
- A crack in a solid can be stressed in three different modes, as
illustrated in Fig.(7).
Fig.(7): The three modes of cracking
7
The three modes of crack surface displacement. (a) Mode I,
opening or tensile mode; (b) mode II, sliding mode; and (c) mode
III, tearing mode.
8
- Normal stresses give rise to the ‘opening mode’ denoted as
mode I.
- The displacement of the crack surfaces are perpendicular to the
plane of the crack.
- In-plain shear results in mode II or ‘sliding mode’: the
displacement of the crack surfaces is in the plane of the crack
and perpendicular to the leading edge of the crack.
- The ‘tearing mode’ or mode III is caused by out-of-plane shear.
- Crack surface displacements are in the plane of the crack and
parallel to the leading edge of the crack.
- Mode I is technically the most important; the information in
this chapter are limited to mode I.
9
- Consider a through-the- thickness mode I crack of length 2a in
an infinite plate, as in Fig.(8).
- The plate is subjected to a tensile stress σ at infinity.
Fig.(8): Crack in an infinite plate
10
- An element dxdy of the plate at a distance r from the crack tip at an
angle θ with respect to the crack plane, experiences normal stresses σx
and σy in X and Y directions and a shear stress τxy.
- These stresses can be shown to be:
(Note that a is the semi-crack length).
11
- As should be expected, in the elastic case, the stresses are proportional
to the external stresses σ.
- They vary with square root of the crack size and they tend to infinity at
the crack tip where r is small.
- The distribution of the stress σy as a function of r at θ = 0 is illustrated in
Fig.(9).
Fig.(9): Elastic stress σy at the crack tip.
12
- For large r, the stress σy approaches zero, while it should go to σ.
- Apparently, eqs. (1.1) are valid only for a limited area around the crack
tip.
- The functions of the coordinates r and θ in eqs. (1.1) are explicit.
- The equation can be written in the generalized form
𝑲𝑰
σij = ƒij(θ) with KI = σ 𝝅𝒂 (1.2)
√𝟐𝝅𝒓
- The factor KI is known as the “stress intensity factor”, where the
subscript I stands for mode I.
- The whole stress field at the crack tip is known when the stress
intensity factor is known.
13
- Two cracks, one of size 4a and the other of size a have the same
stress field at their tips if the first crack is loaded to σ and the other to
2σ. In that event KI is the same for both cracks.
- Equation (1.2) is an elastic solution, which does not prohibit that the
stresses become infinite at the crack tip.
- In reality, this cannot occur: plastic deformation taking place at the
crack tip keeps the stresses finite.
- An impression of the size of the crack tip plastic zone can be obtained
by determining to which distance rp* from the crack tip the elastic
stress σy is larger than the yield stress σys (Fig.10a).
- Substituting σy = σys into eq.(1.1) for σy and taking the plane θ = 0,
it follows that:
14
Fig.(10): Plastic zone at crack tip
(a) Assumed stress distribution;
(b) Approximate stress distribution
15
𝑲𝑰 𝑲𝑰² 𝝈²𝒂
𝝈𝒚 = = σys or rp* = = (𝟑. 𝟑)
𝟐𝝅𝒓𝒑∗ 𝟐𝝅𝝈𝒚𝒔² 𝟐𝝈𝒚𝒔²
- In reality, the plastic zone is somewhat larger (Fig.10b).
- It may suffice here to point out that rp* can be directly
expressed as a function of the stress intensity factor and yield
stress.
- K is a measure for all stresses and strains.
- Crack extension will occur when the stresses and strains at the
crack tip reach a critical value.
- This means that fracture must be expected to occur when KI
reaches a critical value KIc.
- The critical KIc may be expected to be a material property. 16
