The experimentally determined marked rise of the stress intensity factor required to initiate crack propagation in brittle solids under variably high loading rates, is analyzed. This problem of fracture initiation at the tip of a crack is considered in terms of activating a flaw at some distance away from the tip. By using a semi-infinite crack in an unbounded two-dimensional solid subjected to...

Finite element method (FEM) is one of the most famous methods which has many applications in varies studies such as the study of crack propagation in engineering structures. However, unless extremely fine meshes are employed, problem arises in accurately modelling the singular stress field in the singular element area around the crack tip. In the present study, the crack growth simulation has b...

We simulate the propagation of a planar crack in a quasi-two dimensional fuse model, confining the crack between two horizontal plates. We investigate the effect on the roughness of microcrack nucleation ahead of the main crack and study the structure of the damage zone. The two dimensional geometry introduces a characteristic length in the problem, limiting the crack roughness. The damage ahea...

Considering the fact that rocks fail faster under tensile stress, rock tensile strength is of greatimportance in applications such as blasting, rock fragmentation, slope stability, hydraulic fracturing,caprock integrity, and geothermal energy extraction. There are two direct and indirect methods tomeasure tensile strength. Since direct methods always encompass difficulties in test setup, indire...

Crack tip shielding phenomena, whereby the "effective crack-driving force" actually experienced at the crack tip is locally reduced, are examined with reference to fatigue crack propagation behavior in metals, composites and ceramics. Sources of shielding are briefly described in terms of mechanisms relying on the production of elastically constrained zones which envelop the crack (zone shieldi...

Based on the analytical solution of Crouch to the problem of a constant discontinuity in displacement over a finite line segment in an infinite elastic solid, in the present paper, the crack-tip displacement discontinuity elements, which can be classified as the left and the right crack-tip elements, are presented to model the singularity of stress near a crack tip. Furthermore, the crack-tip e...

Plate impact experiments are conducted to study the dynamic fracture processes in 4340 VAR steel which occur on submicrosecond timescales. These experiments involve the plane strain loading of a planar crack by a plane tensile pulse with a duration of approximately 1 /xs. The loading is achieved by impacting a precracked, disk-shaped specimen by a thin flyer plate. Motion of the rear surface of...

Theories of toughness of materials depend on an understanding of the characteristic instabilities of the crack tip, and their possible interactions. In this paper we examine the effect of dislocation emission on subsequent cleavage of a crack and on further dislocation emission. The work is an extension of the previously published Lattice Greens Function methodology[1, 2, 3]. We have developed ...

The fatigue behaviour of single lap bonded joints under fatigue loading was already investigated and a suitable life prediction model was presented and validated [1-2]. The model is based on the actual damage evolution under fatigue load: a crack initiation followed by its propagation up to a critical length [2, 3]. In the present paper the evolution of fatigue damage in single lap joints is ex...

The addition of liquid-filled urea-formaldehyde (UF) microcapsules to an epoxy matrix leads to significant reduction in fatigue crack growth rate and corresponding increase in fatigue life. Mode-I fatigue crack propagation is measured using a tapered doublecantilever beam (TDCB) specimen for a range of microcapsule concentrations and sizes: 0, 5, 10, and 20% by weight and 50, 180, and 460 lm di...