Energy methods:

In fracture mechanics, the growth of the crack is determined by parameters. These parameters have a
limiting value, and anything above it will cause crack. Parameter differ for different approach ( i.e stress,
displacement, energy method).

In this chapter we will employ energy method and in this method large stress near the crack tip is not
important.

Griffiths dilemma

Inglis developed an equation, which determine the maximum stress around the point A at a elliptical
hole in a large plate.

But the problem arises, when minor axis become small( crack is sharp), equ 2.1 gives more or excess
value which is higher than ultimate strength of the material. So Griffith concluded that some factor may
present to make component more durable.

Surface energy:

Similar to the surface tension of the liquid, solid surface too has a similar type of phenomenon.
Molecules at the interior is balanced by the neighboring molecules , but molecules at the surface no
neighboring molecules . in fact , atoms at the surface , as well as atoms just under them, have to re
adjust to form equilibrium and this develops a strain in the material close to the free surface . such
surface deformation requires energy and is known as surface energy.

Griffith reliazation: later on Griffith realized that if a body has to let the crack grow,then some amount of
energy has to be released and this is led to the formation of two new surfaces.
Griffith analysis:

Let us consider a plate with no prior crack. it is pulled and then maintained in tension between two rigid
support as shown in figure 2.2. Now create small crack with the help of knife and continue it until crack
grow by itself. This we called as critical stage (I.e. Stage where crack grow by itself, without any further
need of knife).so our work is to find out critical stages cracks length.

From this we got a valid point that is the plate with higher stiffness reduced drastically due to the
presence of crack and it is further reduces when crack advances. So along with this, stress in the plate
reduces, then strain in the material also reduces. The energy thus released is available for the crack to
grow.

Assumptions for finding solution for fig 2.2 c:

Plate dimension is larger than crack.

Stress at points faraway from crack is assumed to be constant.

From which part of the plate energy got released ?

It mostly happens parts very close to the crack .in our case it happens in a region shown as triangle(
triangle is a simpler one ,and equations will be in algebraic form ). With the increase in crack length the
base and the height of both triangles increase and therefore , the area from which the strain energy is
released proportional to the square of the crack length.

Finding the total energy in the triangle:

Total energy is obtained by multiplying the area of both triangle with plate
thickness B and strain energy density

= surface energy per unit area of one surface ,the surface energy required is
Relation between equ 2.2and2.3 is explained in the above fig 2.3.as you can see that slope of ER is much
smaller than ES. This means that less amount of energy is available and new surface cannot be created.
So the crack will not grow and remain sub critical. But required amount of energy is possible with the
help of external force. In our case it is the knife.

If knife is further used to form the crack, then slope of ER increases, but ES remains same stages reached
when both the slopes become equal. The crack become critical when,

Determining the crack length :

Find critical crack length ac by subsutiting ER and ES into inequality 2.4

ENERGY RELEASE RATE:

ER CAN BE FOUND with the help of term called energy release rate. The energy release rate is defined as
energy release per unit increase in area during crack growth. In definition of G the rate is defined with
respect to change in crack area. The energy requirement for a crack to grow per unit area extension is
called crack resistance and is usually denoted by the symbol , R. Note that symbol R is used in place of
surface energy discussed in the previous section because crack growth an anelastic deformation also
occur up to a certain depth of the cracked surface.

So R =( energy required to form two new surfaces + energy to an anelastic deformation)

Case1: if G > R (excess energy), then crack will grow at faster rate

Formulating the energy release rate :

This is possible with the help of conservation of energy.

Consider the case of an incremental increase in crack area A. To cause this crack growth, an
incremental external work is done by the external force and the strain energy within the body of
the component increases by U. Then the available energy GA ,provides energy balance as follows

CASE 1: application of equ 2.9 for plate with uniform thickness,

A= B a

B is thickness, a=increment in crack length

Then equ 2.9 is modified to

Case 2: dynamic crack propagation

When crack moves rapidly, then some energy is consumed to impart kinetic energy to cracked portion of
the body and to generate stress waves. So equ 2.8 is modified to

Method 1: change in compliance

Compliance is inverse of stiffness and stiffness will decrease with increase with crack length.

Case1: body with a crack and load P

The displacement u of the point at which load is applied can be expressed as

u=CP..2.12

C is compliance

The objective now is to find the energy release rate G in terms of change of compliance with respect to
the crack length a. this is achieved with the help of a simple example given below
Double cantilever beam (DCB):

DCB is a double cantilever beam made by splitting a beam on one end. but results obtained from this
process is applicable for all other problems.

Crack is present at the mid plane of the beam, with both cantilevers having identical geometry.

This problem is solved for two extreme cases

1. Constant load in which the local displacement of load increases as the crack grows

2. Constant displacement where load decreases with crack growth

Constant load: ref fig2.5

Effects of constant load process:

Cantilever ends move away from the crack plane with advancing crack. So work Pu is being done on
the specimen.

Cantilevers are flexed more and they absorb a part of energy out of external work.

Remaining energy is utilized to extend the crack by a

For this strain energy and work done is given by

For fixed grip(constant displacement):

No external work is done on the beam, as its support was fixed.

But with the advancement of crack, cantilevers are relaxed to acquire a smaller curvature and strain
energy stored in cantilever is released at higher rate. So this led to the formation of two new surfaces
and crack may grow.

The potential energy of the system is

Change in the strain energy approach:

Energy release rate in DCB specimen:

Energy release rate can be obtained if the variation of compliance with respect to crack length is known.
So differentiate the ratio of u/P and substituting in eq 2.14, we get energy release rate is determined.
Now we will use this to DCB specimen.

Deflection of a cantilever beam caused by load P applied at the free end is well known and is given by
Stress intensity factor:

Plasticity forms near the crack tip and stress associated with this very large. In order to study this
phenomenon, knowledge about molecular dislocation is highly required. So in order to characterize the
crack, a new parameter called stress intensity factor is developed.

LEFM:

Crack tip of brittle material exhibit elastic property instead of plastic property. So analysis of brittle
material is quite easier. But in ductile material, plasticity present closer to the crack tip (plastic zone )
and remaining have elasticity .so calculation is pretty complex .so elastic-plastic approach is required,
but in few cases for ductile material, plastic zone is so small ,so that we can neglect plastic effect. So in
that case, elastic approach alone is enough. This approach is called LEFM.

Stress and displacement field in isotropic elastic materials:

Parameters which influence the crack tip are

External load ( far field stress)

Crack length ,a

We also know that stress field change from point to point. So its location is described by polar
coordinates(r,theta)and stress field depends on geometry of the object

Let us express stress component in the vicinity of crack tip as

For studying this analysis, we will use flat plate with crack
We will above case for our analysis, the stress field at a general point H near the crack tip for isotropic
and linear elastic material in the flat plate for this mode I case is

So from this, it is clear that stress far field and crack length plays an dominant role in this analysis. If
radius goes zero , then stress gives infinite value. This case is called singular.
Stress intensity factor:

Irwin combined two independent variable crack length ,a and far field stress to form a new variable
called stress intensity factor K( KIES- name of Irwins collaborator). It is shown in below equation, which
taken from last case.

So K is given as

Formally it is given as

If we sub 3.1 in above equ , we will get 3.3 equation.

The above equs mathematical background is not explained properly. So in the upcoming section,we will
see the mathematics behind it.

Basically solution to the fracture problems are obtained by solving field equations of solid mechanics
with necessary boundary conditions.

Field equations:

There are three kinds of field equation, which is exactly similar to what we studied in solid mechanics.

1. Equilibrium equations

2. Strain displacement relation

Differentiating first two terms and sub in third gives

 3. Stress strain relations

3.a compatibility

Special case : thin plate subjected to plane stress. Out of plane stresses are zero

So stress strain relationship will be simplified to

Special case : thick plate subjected to plane stress. U3 = 0.

BIHARMONIC DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION:

If we look closely, all field equations are difficult to compute. So we will try to reduce it to less number
of equations.

This is done by solving the differential equations with stress components as dependent variables. The
reason behind is that most of the boundary conditions, especially at the cracked faces, are known in
stress components. In fact, the cracked surface are generally traction free, thereby making several stress
components zero.( ). And we need to invoke compatibility conditions of 3.8 and change
it in terms of stress components. This is done by substituting stress-strain relations eq .(3.10) into the
compatibility relation[eq 3.8] . Thus we have,
Westergaards approach:

One way to solve the biharmonic equation is to express interms of another complex function Z1(z),
which is an intermediate solution. To solve this specific problem, the form Z1(z) has to satisfy all
boundary conditions of the problem.

For mode II, biharmonic equation has westergaard solution ZII

For mode III, solution is simpler and can be managed without the help of biharmonic equation.

MODE I(OPENING MODE):

Biharmonic expression is expressed as the following for the mode I problem

Equations required:

We are going express above three equations interms of ZI(z)

Convention required:
Relation used Cauchy Riemann )

We differentiate e1 3.17 by making liberal use of eq 3.16 to obtain

So if we know the boundary conditions for the specific problem. We can easily find out the stress vicinity
to the crack. Next we will find out the displacemnt field (u1, u2).

Applying boundary conditions( infinite plate with through the thickness crack length 2a loaded under
biaxial field of stress)
Stress close to the crack tip after satisfying the boundary conditions are given as

Displacement near the crack tip for plane stress condition :

Displacement near the crack tip for plane strain condition:

Crack opening displacement ( mode I continuation )

The distance between the two crack displacement ( COD) is useful for carrying out experiments and for
defining the parameter , crack tip opening displacement ( CTOD).

COD of a center cracked plate when subjected to plane stress loading given in fig 3.6will be obtained by
invoking eq 3.22b

MODE II (SLIDING MODE):

A center cracked proble in an infinite plate for mode II loading is considered as shown in fig 3.3(a). it has
been found that the following expression of the airy stress function is convenient.

Stress field is given by

Further stress components are converted into strain components and then integrate to yield for plain
strain case as

For the case of mode II,as shown in fig 3.3 , the westgaard function is given as

Then we will transform the origin to the crack tip by the transformation relation z= a+z0 and obtain the
simplified but approximate relation as
Mode III(TEARING MODE)