Crack-tip fields in a viscoplastic material (Q1089196)

An integral representation for the particle velocity in terms of a Green function and certain linear combinations of the inelastic strain rates has been used in this paper, both for a numerical method to compute full field solutions and to develop unequivocal asymptotic expressions for the fields near a stationary crack tip. Specific results have been obtained for a solid whose constitutive behavior is represented by the Bodner- Partom model. It is shown that the leading term of the near-tip particle velocity is of order \(r^{1/2}\), and the higher-order terms are of the forms r log r and r. Expressions have been derived for the angular variations and for the multiplying time-dependent intensity factors. The r log r term is absent for the Mode III case. Two questions have been addressed in further detail: the dependence of the intensity factors on time and the importance of the higher-order terms. The numerical results show a stress intensity factor which decays with time. At a small distance from the crack tip the numerically computed normalized opening stress \(\tau_{22}(x_ 1,0,t)/\tau_{22}(x_ 1,0,0)\) has been compared with a one-term asymptotic representation, i.e. with \(K_ 1(t)/K_ 1(0)\). The two curves diverge at very small values of time. The inclusion of a second term in the asymptotic expression for the stress gives very good agreement over a larger time range.