Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures

doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2695.2008.01216.x

Inuence of through-thickness crack shape on plasticity induced crack closure

R. BRANCO 1 , D. M. RODRIGUES 2 and F. V. ANTUNES 2
1 Department 2 CEMUC,

of Mechanical Engineering, Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, Rua Pedro Nunes, Quinta da Nora, 3030-199 Coimbra, Portugal,

University of Coimbra, Polo 2, Pinhal de Marrocos, R. Lus Reis Santos, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal

Received in final form 13 July 2007

A B S T R A C T In most of the previous three-dimensional (3D) numerical studies of plasticity induced

crack closure (PICC), ideal shapes have been assumed for the cracks. The aim of present paper is to study the effect of crack shape on PICC. With this objective a 3D numerical model was developed to predict PICC in middle-tension (MT) specimens with different thicknesses and crack shapes. The radial size of crack tip elements and the stabilization of closure level were studied to ensure the quality of numerical predictions. Simultaneously, an independent numerical model was developed to predict crack shape evolution, stable crack shapes and corresponding K distributions. Crack closure was found to produce a significant tunnelling effect, with maximum values of K and K max at the surface. The curved crack presented significant plastic deformation near the free surface which has a high impact on the computation time, compared to the straight crack. The modification of K and K max with crack shape produced a variation of 38% in opening values at the interior positions, but relatively small variations at the surface. Considering the great influence of crack shape on PICC, it is fundamental to model realistic crack shapes. Keywords crack shape;
NOMENCLATURE

K ; plasticity induced crack closure; thickness.

a = crack length CT = compact tension FCGR = fatigue crack growth rate FEM = finite element method Gp = Gauss point K = stress intensity factor L 1 = radial size of crack tip elements MT = middle-tension specimen PICC = plasticity induced crack closure P max, P min = maximum and minimum values of applied load P op = opening load pt = tunnelling parameter R = stress ratio (=P min /P max ) t = specimens thickness U = fraction of load cycle for which the crack remains fully open W = specimens width a i = extent of individual crack increment K = range of stress intensity factor = stress range av , max , min = average, maximum and minimum stresses open = crack opening stress ys = yield stress

Correspondence: F. V. Antunes. E-mail: fernando.ventura@dem.uc.pt

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INTRODUCTION

The contact of crack flanks during a portion of the load cycle, usually called crack closure, can be classified according to the main closure mechanisms as plasticity induced crack closure (PICC), oxide-induced crack closure and roughness induced crack closure.15 Crack closure seems to be able to explain the influence of mean stress in both regimes I and II of crack propagation,5,6 the transient crack growth behaviour following overloads7 and the effect of thickness on fatigue crack growth,8,9 among other aspects. Considering this, prediction of crack closure level becomes crucial for improved fatigue design of mechanical components. According to Elbers understanding of crack closure,4,5 as the crack propagates due to cyclic loading, a residual plastic wake is formed. The deformed material acts as a wedge behind the crack tip and the contact of fracture surfaces is forced by the elastically deformed remote material. This contact affects the local stress and plastic deformation fields near the crack tip, and therefore the micro mechanisms responsible for fatigue propagation (cyclic plastic deformation, oxidation, etc.). Experimental and numerical approaches have been used to measure the phenomenon. The numerical modelling is particularly interesting to develop parametric studies on the influence of different physical parameters, like thickness, stress ratio, overload ratio or crack shape. The numerical analysis of PICC, based on the finite element method (FEM), consists of the finite element discretisation of the deformable body, modelling of the cyclic load and crack propagation, and finally, measurement of the crack closure level. The finite element mesh must be highly refined near the crack front, with radial sizes within the micron scale, in order to model the forward and reversed crack tip plastic zones. The materials plastic behaviour must also be adequately modelled in order to achieve a realistic simulation of the crack tip deformation mechanisms, namely: strain ratcheting, mean stress relaxation and cyclic hardening or softening. During the numerical simulations, the crack is extended progressively, by using discrete crack increments that are normally set equal to the size of crack tip finite elements. A variable number of load cycles can be applied between crack propagations and the crack closure level is usually defined as the load corresponding to crack flank first contact or to the inversion of stress at the crack tip. A large number of numerical and physical parameters affect the numerical predictions, which justifies the strong research effort and even contradictory literature results. Revision papers have been published by McClung,10 Solanki11 and Jiang,12 among others. Most of the previous numerical studies assumed 2D finite element models and plane stress conditions. In fact,

as crack closure is mainly a surface phenomenon, plane stress conditions are usually considered a good approximation to simulate the onset of crack closure.13 However, 2D plane strain studies have also been developed.1417 The three-dimensional (3D) analyses are expected to be more realistic, however the finite element mesh is more difficult to develop and the numerical effort can easily become unacceptable. Through crack geometries have been studied by Gonzalez et al.18 (CT specimen) and Alizadeh et al.19 (MT specimen), among others. Simandjuntak et al.20 studied corner cracks at a hole with different aspect ratios (c/a = 1; 1.5), while Kim et al.21 studied semicircular surface cracks. All these 3D studies assumed ideal shapes, i.e. straight fronts for through-cracks and circular or elliptical shapes for surface and corner cracks. However, it is well known that small changes of crack shape are responsible for great variations of stress intensity factor.22 The impact of these small changes on crack closure must be studied and the consideration of realistic crack shapes becomes a step forward in the modelling of PICC. Crack shape evolution during crack propagation and fatigue life have already been successfully predicted using numerical techniques.23 An iterative procedure based on 3D finite element analysis of cracked bodies has been widely used in literature to study mode I24 and mixed mode25 propagations. According to this procedure the displacement field resulting from the finite element analysis is used to obtain the stress intensity factors along the crack front and the new crack front position is defined by applying an adequate crack growth model (considering experimental da/dN K curves). This iterative procedure, illustrated in Fig. 1, is repeated up to the final fracture. An excellent agreement was found between experimental crack shapes and numerical predictions.23 Based on several numerical studies, it was found that the crack propagation can be divided into two main stages.26 In the early propagation stage, the crack path depends on the initial crack shape and on the Paris law exponent, and in the subsequent stage the crack follows preferential paths independent of the initial crack shape. In this stage, the crack propagates uniformly along its entire front being affected by parameters like Poissons ratio, specimen thickness or crack closure. The main objective of this paper is to study the influence of crack shape on PICC. With this aim, a 3D numerical model was developed and optimized to predict PICC in MT specimens with different thicknesses and crack shapes. The radial size of crack tip elements (L 1 ) and the stabilization of closure level were studied to ensure the quality of numerical predictions. An independent numerical model was developed to predict crack shape evolution and obtain realistic crack shapes.

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Fig. 1 Automatic crack growth technique: (a) Initial crack front; (b) K calculation along crack front; (c) node displacement; (d) definition of new crack front; (e) final adjustments.

NUMERICAL PROCEDURE

In this study, two independent finite element models were used to predict PICC and obtain realistic crack shapes. More precisely, in the first stage, the closure levels for a straight crack front were predicted using an elastic-plastic analysis. In the second stage, the opening levels calculated at the first stage were used to predict crack shape evolution, stable crack shapes and corresponding K values by using a linear elastic finite element model. Finally, in the third phase, opening levels were determined in a new elastic-plastic analysis performed considering the curved crack shape determined in the second stage. The opening results obtained for straight and curved cracks were compared. Numerical modelling of PICC The MT specimen presented in Fig. 2, subjected to mode I loading was investigated. Due to symmetry conditions, only 1/8 of the sample was simulated corresponding to the shadow portion of the specimen. The opposite crack surface was simulated by assuming frictionless contact conditions over a symmetry plane placed behind the growing crack front. Straight and curved cracks were studied, with an initial size a o of about 5.78 mm (a o /W = 0.23). All the simulations were performed assuming a constant amplitude cyclic loading with stress ratio R = min / max = 0.1 and

Fig. 3 Physical model: (a) front view; (b) plane strain model (t/2 = 0.1 mm); (c) plane stress model (t/2 = 0.1 mm); (d) relatively thick model.

50

2a

max / ys 0.35, being max , min and ys the maximum, minimum and yield stresses, respectively. The boundary conditions assumed are indicated in Fig. 3. Pure plane strain (Fig. 3b) and plane stress (Fig. 3c) conditions were simulated by using a specimen with very small thickness (t/2 = 0.1 mm). Specimen thickness was successively increased in order to study its effect on crack closure. The elastic-plastic behaviour of the material was modelled as corresponding to the AA6016-T4 aluminium alloy. Three types of mechanical tests have been performed in order to study the hardening behaviour of this material: uniaxial tensile tests and monotonic and Bauschinger simple shear tests.27 From the experimental data and curve fitting results, for different constitutive models, it was determined that the mechanical behaviour of this alloy is better represented using an isotropic hardening model described by a Voce type equation
Y = Y0 + Rsat (1 e nv )
p

(1)

50

200

50

combined with a nonlinear kinematic hardening model described by a saturation law28 ( X) X = Cx Xsat X p . (2)

Fig. 2 Middle-tension (MT) specimen.

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In previous equations, Y is the equivalent flow stress, p is the equivalent plastic strain, Y 0 is the initial yield stress, R sat is the saturation stress, n v , C x and X sat are material constants, is the deviatoric stress tensor, X is the back stress tensor, p the equivalent plastic strain rate and the equivalent stress. The material constants determined for the material under study are: Y 0 = 124 MPa, R sat = 291 MPa, n v = 9.5, C x = 146.5 and X sat = 34.90 MPa. The elastic properties considered were E = 70000 GPa, = 0.29. To overcome convergence difficulties, crack propagation was simulated by successive debonding of nodes at minimum load. Each crack increment ( a i ) corresponded to one finite element and two load cycles were applied between increments. In each cycle, the crack propagates uniformly over the thickness by releasing all current crack front nodes. The opening load, P op , necessary for the determination of the closure level was determined by evaluating the contact status of the first node behind the current crack tip with the symmetry plane. The fraction of the load cycle for which the crack remains fully open was defined by open / max . Figure 4 presents one finite element mesh defined for a curved crack in a specimen with 0.5 mm half-thickness (t/2). The mesh was refined at the crack front to model the severe plastic deformation gradients and enlarged at remote positions to reduce the numerical effort. The radial size considered for the elements around the crack front

was L 1 = 8 or 16 m. The 3D meshes were generated from a 2D mesh with 3230 elements by creating successive element layers in the thickness direction, as Fig. 4c illustrates. The mesh in Fig. 4 had 16150 linear isoparametric elements and 19950 nodes. The numerical simulations were performed with the three-dimensional elasto-plastic finite element program (DD3IMP) that follows a fully implicit time integration scheme.29,30 The mechanical model and the numerical methods used in the finite element code DD3IMP, specially developed for the numerical simulation of metal forming processes, takes into account the large elasticplastic strains and rotations that are associated with large deformation processes. To avoid the locking effect a selective reduced integration method is used in DD3IMP.31,32 The optimum values of the numerical parameters of the DD3IMP implicit algorithm have been already established in previous works, concerning the numerical simulation of sheet metal forming processes33 and PICC.34 Modelling of crack shape evolution Realistic crack shapes were obtained numerically using an iterative procedure based on a 3D finite element analysis.23,24 This procedure consists of the successive calculation of displacement fields, stress intensity factors, local crack advances and new crack front locations, as illustrated in Fig. 1. This task was done using module F,

Fig. 4 Finite element mesh: (a) frontal view; (b) detail of frontal view; (c) 3D view.

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a non-commercial FEM package. The displacement field (Fig. 1a) was determined and used to calculate the mode I stress intensity factor for each crack front node (Fig. 1b). Taking into account the K I values determined, the Paris law parameters and a finite number of load cycles, the local increments of the crack length are calculated (Fig. 1c). The propagation at each crack front node, under remote mode-I load, occurs along the normal direction to the tangent of the crack front at each node position. Adding the crack increments to the initial nodal coordinates, a new crack front is created (Fig. 1d). Finally, some adjustments on the crack front are needed near the surfaces, as presented in Fig. 1e. Cubic spline functions are used to redefine the positions of mid-side nodes, which permit more realist crack shapes. The new crack front is then considered in the consecutive step as an input data, and the methodology is repeated up to the final fracture. The influence of PICC, calculated as described in section Numerical Modelling of PICC, was considered in this analysis by defining effective values for the stress intensity factor along the crack front, K eff = UK. The parameter U defines the fraction of the load cycle for which the crack remains open: U= Pmax Pop . Pmax Pmin (3)

tred on the crack front, a regular mesh region away from the crack front with relatively large elements and a transition region (Fig. 5b) between those. The spider web mesh has eight layers of elements along the thickness, while the regular mesh presents four layers. The optimum radial size of crack front elements was found to be approximately 4% of average crack length. The assembled mesh (Fig. 5c) has 1228 elements (116 pentahedric elements and 1112 hexahedric elements) and 1650 nodes. The material was assumed to have a linear elastic behaviour with E = 70 000 MPa and = 0.29. The stress intensity factor was calculated from the energy release rate, G, according to the relation K = EG . (1 2 ) (4)

The energy release rate was obtained according to35 G= d WE , dA (5)

The finite element mesh used to study the crack shape evolution is presented in Fig. 5, consisting of 20-node hexahedric elements and 15-node pentahedric elements. Singular pentahedric elements, with mid-side nodes at quarter-point positions, were placed along the crack front. A full Gauss integration was used for these elements, i.e. 3 3 3 integration points for hexahedric elements and 21 integration points for pentahedric elements. The finite element mesh was defined with three different regions: a spider web mesh (Fig. 5a) made of concentric rings cen-

where W E is the work of external forces and dA is a virtual crack increment. To obtain a local value of G, the crack increment dA was confined to a zone of the crack front. Only one corner node was moved, in order to minimize the portion of the crack front affected by the virtual extension. The crack increment at an arbitrary node along the crack front was defined as: ai =
(j) ( j)

Ki

( j)

( j) K max

( j) a max ,

(6)

where amax is the maximum crack growth for the jth iteration. In order to study the effect of crack closure on fatigue crack growth, an effective stress intensity range was considered, given as follows:
(j K i,eff) = Ui . K i( j ) ,

(7)

where U i is the fraction of the load cycle for which the crack remains fully open (Eq. 3).
R E S U LT S

Numerical modelling of PICC: optimization The quality of numerical predictions of PICC was a major concern. The radial size of crack tip elements, L 1 , is a main parameter of the numerical model. The reduction of L 1 approaches numerical models to real fatigue crack propagation, as it reduces the individual crack increments and increases the number of load cycles applied to each near crack tip point. The cyclic deformation, the capacity of modelling the reversed plasticity, the crack opening load and the computation effort are also affected by L 1 . Concerning plastic deformation at the crack tip, the finite element mesh must be sufficiently refined to enable

Fig. 5 Mesh used to study crack shape evolution: (a) spider web mesh; (b) transition mesh; (c) assembled model.

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4 3 2
yy/ys

plane strain plane stress

1 1 0 0.000 -1 20 -2 20 0.005 0.010 0.015 0.020

yy

GP 711 18 20

Fig. 6 (a) Stressstrain curves for one Gauss point; (b) location of the Gauss point relatively to the crack tip ( max = 40 MPa, min = 4 MPa, a 0 /W = 0.23, L 1 = 16 m, a = 20 16 = 320 m, 2 cycles per increment).

the numerical simulation of the forward and reversed plastic zones. The forward plastic zone consists of the material near the crack tip undergoing plastic deformation at the maximum load, therefore is intimately related with K max and stress state. The reversed plastic zone encompasses the material near the crack tip undergoing compressive yielding at the minimum load and is related to K and stress state. As the reversed zone is smaller than the forward plastic zone, its size is critical for the definition of an upper bound of L 1 . Figure 6 presents stressstrain ( yy yy ) results registered during the numerical simulations, for a Gauss point (GP) situated ahead of the initial crack tip as shown in the sketch under the graphic (GP in position 20 ahead of the initial crack tip position). These curves were obtained for the same finite element mesh, with 16 m elements at the crack front, considering plane stress and plane strain conditions and the same load values. According to this figure, plane stress conditions produce higher plastic strain and lower stress levels, as could be expected. In fact, under plane strain conditions the through-thickness stress is responsible for an increase in hydrostatic stress, which reduces the plastic strain. Analysis of Fig. 6 also indicates that reversed plasticity extends over an area that encompasses three crack tip elements for plane stress and only one element for plane strain conditions. According to Solanki et al.36 there must be 34 linear elements within the reversed plastic zone, while Roychowdhury et al.37 suggested 23 linear elements. So, for plane stress conditions the model used is adequate, but for plane strain conditions an improvement was found necessary. Therefore, the mesh

was refined to 8 m and the stress level increased to max / ys = 0.39 (R = 0.1) in order to increase the size of the reversed plastic zone and thus the number of crack tip elements within the reversed plastic zone. However, the plastic zone remained smaller than one element for the load level imposed. A further decrease of L 1 is not reasonable as it would produce an unacceptable increase in numerical effort, particularly for the 3D models with several layers of elements. Another major parameter affecting the accuracy of crack closure numerical prediction is the minimum crack extension required for stabilization, a stb . Usually a stb is defined as a fraction of the size of the monotonic plastic zone resulting from the first load cycle. Values of half,38 one,13,21 two36 and four12 have been reported for a stb under plane stress conditions. Under plane strain conditions values of one,36 four39,40 and eight21 have been suggested. These different conclusions can be explained by the wideness of parametric space associated with numerical and physical parameters. Therefore, a convergence study is always recommended. Figure 7 presents crack closure level versus crack propagation along the thickness of a specimen with t/2 = 0.5 mm (Fig. 3d). As it can be observed in the figure, closure behaviour varies significantly when moving from the free surface (z = 0.5 mm) to the deepest point (z = 0) in sample thickness. In this figure are also shown pure plane strain and pure plane stress results obtained with the boundary conditions sketched in Figs 3b and c, respectively. The results obtained in these conditions bound the numerical predictions from the 0.5 mm half-thickness sample, as could be expected considering that these are extreme situations. For the 0.5 mm thickness sample a monotonic increase of closure level to a steady-state value is observed from z = 0.5 to z = 0.2 mm.

0.6 z=0.5 (surface) 0.5

open /max [-]

plane stress

z=0.4 z=0.3

0.4

z=0.2 z=0.1 z=0

0.3 plane strain 0.2 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 a [mm]

Fig. 7 Evolution of normalized crack opening stresses with crack propagation (t/2 = 0.5 mm, L 1 = 8 m, two load cycles, a = 37 8 = 296 m, R = 0.1, max = 50 MPa).

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The same effect is also observed for the pure plane stress results. The increase in opening results from the development of the plastic wake behind the crack tip. Immediately behind the crack tip, the plastic wedge wake has a major influence on closure level that decreases rapidly with crack propagation until it disappears. On the other hand, for the z = 0 and z = 0.1 layers of the 0.5 mm thick specimen and for pure plane strain conditions, closure presents a peak value followed by a stable decrease. The occurrence of significant plastic deformation during the first load cycle explains this trend. The plastic wedge formed has its maximum influence at some position behind crack tip and a decrease is observed when moving away. Fleck14 indicated that a residual wedge of material is left at a location immediately ahead of the initial location of crack tip, which leads to discontinuous crack closure (first contact of crack flanks at a position remote from crack tip). The application of an overload produces a similar phenomenon. However, the magnitude of plane strain PICC after stabilization still is controversial. A number of researchers have concluded, based on experimental and numerical studies, that PICC does not occur under plane strain conditions for a steady state growing fatigue crack.41 The main problem from the theoretical point of view is to visualise the additional volume of material necessary to explain the plasticity induced closure, because out-of plane flow is not allowed, by definition. Non-zero closure values were obtained here with two load cycles between crack increments, however the results present a consistent decrease. A significant difference exists between plane strain and z = 0, which indicates that thicknesses of 0.5 are not enough to obtain plane strain conditions at the mid-section. Extrapolation of crack closure values is crucial in 3D models with long stabilization periods. In fact, considering the great numerical effort involved, it is important to minimise the number of crack increments ( a) during numerical simulations. A limited number of crack propagations can be defined by using extrapolation models. Gonzalez et al.18 and Jiang et al.12 proposed the following asymptotic functions, respectively: open 1 =k , max ( a + c )b open = C0 + C1 .e C2 . a . max (8)

0.6 Eq. 4 0.55 0.5 extrapolation [-] 0.45 0.4 0.35 0.3 0.25 0.2 0 0.1 0.2 a [mm] 0.3 0.4 plane strain Eq. 6
open / max

fitting

Eq. 6 Eq.5

plane stress

Fig. 8 Fitting of extrapolation models to plane stress and plane strain numerical predictions (t/2 = 0.5 mm, z = 0.5 mm, L 1 = 8 m, two load cycles, a = 37 8 = 296 m, R = 0.1, max = 50 MPa).

This equation, that is a Voce type equation similar to that used to model the isotropic hardening behaviour of the material, has four constants. The extrapolation results obtained with Eqs (8)(10) are compared in Fig. 8. The Voce model presents the best extrapolation results, therefore is recommended. This model was also applied with success to plane strain results, considering only the decreasing region, as illustrated at the bottom of Fig. 8.

Effect of thickness on PICC Figure 9 presents the variation of crack closure along the thickness (z) for specimens with straight crack fronts and different thickness values (t). As can be seen in the figure, at the free surface of all the samples, the normalized opening values are similar and independent of thickness, which indicates that a plane stress state is always present. As the thickness of the samples increase, the opening stress varies through crack front, decreasing from the surface to the mid-section. Therefore, under increasing load, the crack will open first in the mid-thickness and last on the surface. The increase of thickness decreases the minimum opening values towards plane strain values. However, for the maximum thickness studied (1 mm), the midthickness value is significantly higher than the plane strain value, which means that this state is not reached. Agreement between plane strain results and 3D finite element crack opening for the mid-thickness is expected for larger thicknesses.

(9)

Both models have three fitting constants, being k and C 0 the horizontal asymptote. The application of these models to numerical results was found reasonable, but not excellent, therefore a modified version was proposed:23 open = C0 + C1 .e C2 . max
a C3

(10)

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0.60

0,75 Tunnelling effect parameter, pt [-]

t d

0.55 0.50 [-] 0.45 0.40 0.35 0.30 0.25 0.20 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 z [mm] 0.4 0.5 0.6 plane strain t/2=0.1 mm t/2=0.2 mm t/2=0.3 mm t/2=0.4 mm t/2=0.5 mm

II

0,45

open / max

0,15

with crack closure without crack closure

-0,15 2,5 5 7,5 10

av

12,5 [mm]

15

Average crack length, a

Fig. 9 Effect of specimen thickness on normalized crack opening stresses (L 1 = 8 m, two load cycles, a = 37 8 = 296 m, R = 0.1, max = 50 MPa).

Fig. 11 Evolution of the tunnelling effect parameter with the average crack length.

Determination of stable crack shapes The opening results presented in Fig. 9 were used to obtain stable crack shapes, as described in section Modelling of Crack Shape Evolution. Figure 10 compares the crack shape evolution from an initial straight crack (a 0 = 5.78 mm) obtained without crack closure (Fig. 10a) and with crack closure (Fig. 10b). Some of the intermediate crack profiles have been hidden to improve clarity. The sketch on the right side of both figures is a detail of crack shape evolution during the early propagation. This figure shows that without PICC, the crack will remain straight with only a smooth propagation delay near the free surfaces. Modelling of crack closure produces a tunnelling effect that increases progressively during the propagation. In fact, as shown with previous results (Figs 7 and 9), the closure level is higher at the surface of the samples than inside, which explains the arresting effect of the surface.

a)

b)

Fig. 10 Fatigue crack evolution of an initial straight crack (t/2 = 0.5 mm; a 0 /W = 0.23): (a) Without crack closure; (b) With crack closure.

For a deeper analysis of crack shape evolution a robust dependent parameter has been employed. The tunnelling effect parameter (pt), defined by the ratio d/t (both variables defined in Fig. 11), characterizes the global aspect of the crack. Greater values of pt mean an increase of crack tunnelling. Figure 11 shows the evolution of pt with the average crack length (given by the average of all nodal crack lengths) for an initial straight shape and for an initial chevron shape with the same average crack length. The crack shape evolution was predicted with crack closure (full lines with symbols) and without crack closure (dashed lines). As can be observed in the figure, straight and chevron initial crack shapes have quite distinct propagations. However, as the crack propagates, they tend towards similar trajectories only dependent on crack closure. In fact, as was already mentioned, two distinct propagation stages can be clearly identified.23 Figure 11 also shows stable shapes in the whole propagation domain. Without crack closure, pt is constant, i.e. the crack maintains its shape during all propagation. With crack closure, stable values of pt are significantly higher, i.e. the crack presents a tunnelling effect, which is also obvious in Fig. 10. Increasing crack length produces a linear increase of tunnelling. During fatigue crack growth the values of stress intensity factor change along the crack front. In fact, smooth changes of crack shape produce strong modifications of K distribution. Figure 12b exhibits the distributions of stress intensity factor along crack front for the three crack shapes presented in Fig. 12a (notice that the Y -axis of this graph is amplified in order to enhance the differences between crack shapes). In Fig. 12b, it is possible to observe that the stress intensity factor has variations of only 8.8% for the straight crack. This explains the small difference between the shapes of iso-K and straight cracks. On the

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5.9

5.8 a [mm]

as the strength of the r 0.5 singularity. However, in numerical calculations the values obtained are finite and of the same order as elsewhere along the crack front.44 The increase of K at the surface, illustrated in Fig. 12b for the tunnelled crack, is as expected.45 The difficulties of FEM simulation near the surface do not affect the results for the interior crack front.46 Effect of crack shape on PICC

5.7

5.6

Straight crack Iso-K crack Tunnelled crack

5.5 -0.5

-0.3

-0.1 t [mm]

0.1

0.3

0.5

16 Kmax, Tunnelled crack 14 12 10 8 6 Kmin, Tunnelled crack Kmax, Straight crack Kmin, Straight crack Kmax, Iso-K crack

The stable crack shape, obtained considering previous crack closure results, was modelled and simulated with the DD3IMP in order to understand the effect of crack shape on crack closure behaviour. Figure 13a shows the evolution of the opening values with crack propagation, which looks to be similar to that obtained for the straight crack (Fig. 7). Figure 13b shows the influence of crack shape on stabilized crack opening values along the crack front.
0.6 0.5 0.4 [-]
open / max

K [MPa.m ]

0.5

plane stress

z=0.4

z=0.3

z=0.5 z=0.2

4 2 0 -0.5

0.3 0.2

z=0.1 z=0

-0.3

-0.1 z [mm]

0.1

0.3

0.5

0.1 0 0 0.05 0.1 a [mm] 0.15 0.2

Fig. 12 (a) Crack shapes; (b) stress intensity factor distributions ( max = 50 MPa, min = 5 MPa).

0.6

other hand, the tunnelled crack studied presents a variation of 112% in K. Minimum values were obtained at mid-section and an increase was observed from there to the free surfaces. The range of stress intensity factor varies from 4.8 at mid-section to 12.8 MPa m1/2 at surface for the tunnelled crack, while the stress ratio is constant (R = min / max = 0.1). The validity of K at corner points is however questionable. In fact, there is an almost general agreement that at corner points the singularity, although existing, is usually different from r 0.5 . The order of singularity, , depends on the Poissons ratio of the material, , and on the intersection angle of the crack with the free surface, . There is a critical value, c , for each that gives a vertex singularity equal to 0.5.42,43 For the tunnelled crack > c , which means that the corner singularity is higher than 0.5. This implies that, for = 0, the stress intensity factor at this point is infinite (or does not exist), because it is defined

0.5

0.4
open / max

[-] 0.3 0.2 0.1 mid-section 0 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 z [mm] 0.4 0.5 0.6 surface

Fig. 13 (a) Opening stabilization for the crack with tunnelling; (b) crack opening values (t/2 = 0.5 mm, L 1 = 8 m, two load cycles, R = 0.1, max = 50 MPa).

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Although there is a substantial difference in K distribution along crack front, the opening values do not show a drastic variation. In any case, the interior values decrease with the increase of tunnelling. This is explained by the reduction of maximum stress intensity factor and K at interior positions for the tunnelled crack. The equivalent plastic strain field for the straight and tunnelled cracks has been compared. The curved crack has strong plastic deformation at the surface, where K max and K have their maximum values. This deformation was responsible for a huge increase of numerical effort. On the other hand, the straight crack has a nearly uniform distribution of equivalent plastic deformation along crack front. For both shapes, the maximum values of plastic deformation occurred at the initial crack tip position and a decrease was observed with crack propagation. The variation of crack shape is responsible for the variation of K visible in Fig. 12b. For a deeper understanding of the effect of crack shape on crack opening behaviour a numerical study was developed in which K (fixing R) was varied. The pure plane stress (Fig. 3b) and pure plane strain models (Fig. 3a) were used in this study. The crack opening results obtained in the numerical simulations are presented in Fig. 14. This figure shows that under plane stress conditions the increase of K does not produce a significant variation of the opening load in the range 5 10 MPa m1/2 , which explains the small variations observed in Fig. 13b between z = 0.3 and 0.5 mm. In fact, the increase of K max increases the size of forward plastic zone, which is expected to increase the opening level. On the other hand, the increase of K increases the reversed plastic deformation, which is expected to decrease the opening level. These opposite trends explain the relatively low influence of K when fixing the stress ratio. Under plane
0.6

strain conditions, the increase of K increases significantly the crack opening level. The tunnelled crack has lower values of K at interior crack tip positions, relatively to the straight crack, as illustrated in Fig. 12b. This reduction of K explains the reduction of crack opening level observed at interior positions.
CONCLUSIONS

0.5

0.4 open /max

A 3D numerical model was developed to predict PICC in MT specimens with different thicknesses and crack shapes. The radial sizes of the crack tip elements and the stabilization of the closure load were studied to ensure the quality of the numerical predictions. A Voce model was successfully used to extrapolate the opening values and to check their stabilization with crack propagation. An independent numerical model was developed to predict crack shape evolution, realistic stable crack shapes and respective K distributions. The values of PICC along the crack front were included in the analysis by considering effective values for the stress intensity factor ( K eff = U. K). Two distinct propagation stages were identified: an early propagation stage (transient stage), which is highly affected by the initial crack shape and can present strong variations of shape with propagation, and a second propagation stage (stable stage) during which the crack follows a path dependent on specimens geometry, Poissons ratio and PICC. Crack closure was found to produce a significant tunnelling effect on stable crack shapes. The tunnelled cracks presented maximum values of K and K max at surface, while the straight cracks showed a nearly constant distribution of K and K max . PICC was predicted for both the straight and curved crack fronts. The tunnelled crack showed significant plastic deformation near the free surface of the sample, explained by the relatively high values of K and K max , which increased significantly the computation time compared to the straight crack. The modification of K and K max with crack shape produced a variation of 38% at the interior positions but relatively small variations at the surface. Considering the great influence of crack shape on PICC, it is fundamental to model realist crack shapes. Acknowledgements

0.3

0.2

Plane stress
0.1

Plane strain

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by Fundacao para a Ci ncia e Tecnologia, Portugal e (project POCTI/EME 47022/2002) and UE/FEDER.
12

0.0 2 4 6 [MPa.m
1/2

8 ]

10

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Fig. 14 Effect of K on normalized crack opening stresses for plane stress and plane strain conditions (t/2 = 0.1 mm, L 1 = 16 m, two load cycles, R = 0.1).

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