Plane strain mixed mode crack-tip stress fields characterized by a triaxial stress parameter and a plastic deformation extent based characteristic length (Q5958036)

The aim is to determine whether mixed-mode I/II crack-tip fields in ductile materials can be characterized by a minimum number of parameters. For this, a series of detailed elastic-plastic finite element analyses are performed. First, a brief discussion of previous analytical work is presented to select optimal normalization parameters. Three elastic-plastic materials are considered in the finite element models: (i) an aluminium alloy, that obeys the J2-flow theory of plasticity, in which the effective stress-strain behaviour is given by an experimentally measured uniaxial stress-strain curve; (ii) two materials with power hardening, that obey the J2-deformation theory of plasticity and the uniaxial Ramberg-Osgood relationship. Computations are performed with small displacement theory implemented in the finite element code ABAQUS. To account for the full range of mode mixity and constraint conditions in the crack tip stress fields, (i) the small-scale yielding (SSY) model with a modified boundary layer formulation; (ii) full-field solutions for slant cracked tension bar and (iii) an asymmetric three point bend bar are analyzed in detail. The numerical results are presented with emphasis on the effectiveness of characteristic length scale, based on the spatial extent of crack-tip plastic deformation, and a stress triaxility parameter, based on the ratio between the mean stress and effective one, in characterizing the crack-tip fields for all specimen geometry considered, even when large-scale yielding is present. Then, the self-similar family of mixed mode crack-tip fields obtained from numerical studies is investigated in more detail. Derivations for both slip-line mixed mode solutions and J-dominated HRR-type mixed-mode fields under SSY conditions are presented to demonstrate the underlying basis for the stress triaxility parameter family of solutions. Finally, the results of the paper demonstrate that the crack-tip stress fields along local mode I or mode II directions can be scaled onto master curves, that hold for a variety of cases studied, involving different loading mode mixity, material hardening behaviour, geometry, and boundary conditions. It is shown that the local mode I direction coincides with the maximum direction of the stress triaxility parameter, and the local mode II direction coincides with the maximum direction of the characteristic length scale considered.