The structure of the near-tip field during transient elastodynamic crack growth

TLDR: In this article, the authors considered the influence of the transient nature of the crack growth process on the stress field in the immediate vicinity of a crack tip during nonsteady growth.

Abstract: T he process of dynamic crack growth in a nominally elastic malerial under conditions of plane strain or plane stress is considered. Of particular concern is the influence of the transient nature of the process on the stress field in the immediate vicinity of the crack tip during nonsteady growth. Asymptotically, the crack tip stress field is square root singular at the crack tip, with the angular variation of the singular field depending weakly on the instantaneous crack tip speed and with the instantaneous stress intensity factor being a scalar multiplier of the singular field. However, for a material particle at a small distance from the moving crack, the local stress field depends not only on instantaneous values of crack speed and stress intensity factor, but also on the past history of these lime-dependent quantities. A representation of the crack tip field is obtained in the form of an expansion about the crack up in powers of radial coordinate, with the coefficients depending on the time rates of change of crack tip speed and stress intensity factor. This representation is used to interpret some experimental observations, with the conclusion that the higher-order expansion provides an accurate description of crack tip fields under fairly severe transient conditions. In addition, some estimates are made of the practical limits of using a stress intensity factor field alone to characterize the local fields.