Premium
Cyclic crack propagation at corners and holes
Author(s) -
DHONDT G.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
fatigue and fracture of engineering materials and structures
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.887
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1460-2695
pISSN - 8756-758X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1460-2695.2004.00852.x
Subject(s) - classification of discontinuities , discontinuity (linguistics) , intersection (aeronautics) , crack closure , structural engineering , fracture mechanics , boundary (topology) , geometry , materials science , square (algebra) , mechanics , engineering , mathematics , mathematical analysis , physics , aerospace engineering
Cracks frequently change their shape at geometric discontinuities such as corners or holes. Using the MTU automatic fatigue crack propagation software CRACKTRACER, this phenomenon is investigated for a simple specimen with square cross section and a drilling hole. The analysis shows that a change in crack shape takes place as soon as a discontinuity is reached and can be interpreted as being triggered by the resulting change of intersection angle with the free boundary. This leads to a violation of the previously existing equilibrium conditions and a sharp increase in the local stress intensity factors ( K factors). Thereupon, the crack rapidly converges towards a new equilibrium configuration.