On the fracture behavior of inhomogeneous materials -- a case study for elastically inhomogeneous bimaterials (Q1777188)

This paper shows how a sharp bimaterial interface perpendicular to the crack plane influences the effective crack driving force. The authors study the effect of inhomogeneity of elastic modulus in linear elastic and elastic-plastic (non-hardening and hardening) bimaterials under plane strain conditions. They use the ABACUS finite element program to perform the stress analysis, in which the material properties and the distance between the crack tip and the interface are systematically varied. The influence of material inhomogeneity on fracture resistance is estimated by the material inhomogeneity term. This term can be either evaluated by a simple post-processing procedure, following a conventional finite element stress analysis, or by estimating the \(J\)-integral along a contour around the interface. The effective near-tip crack driving force is the sum of the material inhomogeneity term and the nominally applied far-field crack driving force. When a crack approaches the interface to a more compliant material, the material inhomogeneity term is positive, whereas the transition into a stiffer material leads to its negative value. The considered numerical examples show that (i) for linear elastic bimaterials the material inhomogeneity term is proportional to the far-field crack driving force, the first Dunders parameter and a geometric factor; (ii) for elastic-plastic bimaterials with a constant yield stress and zero hardening, the material inhomogeneity term first increases with far-field crack driving force, but reaches finally a saturation value; (iii) for a strain-hardening material (a power-law case), the material inhomogeneity term does not reach a saturation value and may increase appreciably above the corresponding value of a comparable non-hardening material.