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Lecture 6

The document discusses the stress intensity factor in relation to brittle fracture, highlighting characteristics such as rapid crack propagation and low energy absorption. It explains the limitations of the stress concentration factor for sharp cracks and introduces the Westergaard solutions for stress analysis. Additionally, it covers the effects of loading geometry on fracture toughness, emphasizing the importance of specimen thickness in determining the critical stress intensity factor (KIC).

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Rano Al Hmash
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10 views20 pages

Lecture 6

The document discusses the stress intensity factor in relation to brittle fracture, highlighting characteristics such as rapid crack propagation and low energy absorption. It explains the limitations of the stress concentration factor for sharp cracks and introduces the Westergaard solutions for stress analysis. Additionally, it covers the effects of loading geometry on fracture toughness, emphasizing the importance of specimen thickness in determining the critical stress intensity factor (KIC).

Uploaded by

Rano Al Hmash
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Stress Intensity Factor

The analysis of fracture can also be approached via elastic stress analysis
of the region around a sharp-tipped crack.
Characteristic features of a Brittle Fracture
1. Very little general plasticity — broken pieces can be fitted together
with no obvious deformation.
2. Rapid crack propagation (Vs/3), eg ‚ ~1000 m/s for steel
3. Low failure load relative to general yield load.
4. Low energy absorption.
5. Usually fractures are flat and perpendicular to maximum principal
stress.
6. Fracture always initiates at a flaw or a site of stress concentration.
Stress concentration at notches

In traditional engineering design such stress concentrations are denoted by the stress
concentration factor kt:
Stress concentration at cracks
For an infinitely sharp crack the SCF is infinite, and must be redefined
➢Equation (1) predicts that σmax → ∞ as ρ → 0. This suggests that for a sharp crack, any
applied stress will cause infinitely high stresses at the tip.

➢ Also for very sharp cracks, this approach cannot distinguish between long and short
cracks whereas experience tells us that failure stress depends on crack length.

Conclusion: the concept of stress concentration factor breaks down as crack tip radius
tends to zero.
Stress-strain fields ahead of a crack

The preceding loose definition of K results from considering the stress concentration
effect of a crack in somewhat general terms. A more rigorous analysis for the stress
analysis of a crack is included here for completeness.

The solutions that follow were compiled in 1948 and became known as the
Westergaard solutions. The expressions for the stresses are obtained neglecting
plasticity in the first instance, i.e. a material is assumed which has
no elastic limit.

Consider an infinite plate with a through-thickness centre crack of length 2a


and subjected to a uniform, biaxial state of
Westergaard Solution

➢Equations (5) indicate that all the stresses tend to infinity as the radial
distance tends to zero crack tip), i.e. A stress singularity exists at the crack tip.

➢The equations also show why cracks usually continue to propagate in the
plane of the starter crack since σy is maximum for θ = 0.
Plasticity and triaxiality
In most real materials, a loaded material is blunted by plastic deformation.
As usual in plasticity analyses, description of the field in terms of principal stresses
facilitates visualization. The principal stresses for the same Westergaard field are:

Homework

Tresca or Von Mises may be used as yield criteria for metals and they are both indicative of
the presence of shear (shear strain energy in the case of Mises and maximum shear stress
in Tresca’s case), therefore some assumption must be made as to the value of the third
principal stress component, σ3. Two possibilities are of interest:
1. Plane stress: σ3 = 0;
2. Plane strain: ϵ3 = 0 hence σ3 =  (σ1 + σ2)

Plane stress Plane strain

1. σ3 is related to the sum (σ1 + σ2) and


1. r decreases, the magnitude of σ1 and σ2 therefore is also singular shear stress
increases whereas σ3 remains zero. component can therefore increase quite
2. shear stress component can therefore dramatically.
increase quite dramatically. 2. has a high degree of triaxiality
3. Plane stress is a reasonable description 3. plane strain describes the stress state of
of the stress state in thin sheets. thick components.
4. Contained yield and high severity
The stress intensity factor and the shape factor
The definition of a single scaling factor to represent the loading
geometry and configuration.
For the initial case of the infinite plate subjected to uniform stresses, the stress intensity
factor is written

which is justifiable since, for an infinite plate, the only known dimension is the crack
length.
In general, the stress intensity factor depends on the geometry of the cracked body
(including the crack length) and it is usual to express it as

where Y is called the shape factor and is a function of body geometry and crack length.
Modifications for real geometries
➢Loading geometry

Stress intensities can be defined for each type of displacement and are designated KI
, KII and KIII. However, the great majority of failures occur under mode I loading and hence most fracture
toughness data relate to this mode of loading. For mode I loading, the critical stress intensity factor is
designated KIc
➢Loading geometry
The subscript “I” refers to the mode I crack opening, because it is almost
always the limiting value in fracture analysis. HW

▪ It should be noted that the plane-strain fracture toughness (KIC) of a


material is a material property, much as the yield strength or the
elongation.
▪ This is not true for the plane-stress condition, where the fracture
toughness (KC) varies with the specimen thickness.
▪ The KIC depends on number of factors: Temperature, strain rate, material
processing and the final microstructure.
▪ The value of K decreases with increasing strain rate, decreasing with
temperature and increasing yield strength.
Above a certain thickness Bmin, the fracture toughness has a minimum value which is
independent of thickness

The minimum specimen thickness required to ensure the plane strain conditions
necessary for KIc is given by:

As the specimen thickness decreases from Bmin, the fracture toughness KIC increases
until a maximum value is attained. This maximum reflects the attainment of fully
plane stress conditions. Thereafter the toughness again decreases for very small
thicknesses.
The changes in KIc with thickness are accompanied by corresponding changes in fracture
geometry. In the plane strain regime the fracture surface is oriented at 90° to the direction
of loading (ie “square” fracture). As the thickness decreases, 45° “shear lips” appear on
either side of a flat central regime. At and below the thickness corresponding to the
maximum KIc position, the shear lips occupy the full thickness and one has a 45° “shear” or
plane stress fracture.
Example

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