Derivation of crack growth laws for linear viscoelastic solids based upon the concept of a fracture process zone

✍ Scribed by L. N. McCartney

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 347 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1573-2673
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00018241

✦ Synopsis

The analysis presented in this paper derives, for a centre-crack embedded in a linear viscoelastic medium, crack growth equations which are based upon a modified energy balance relation. In contrast to an earlier approach a fracture process zone is introduced in the neighbourhood of the crack tip. It has the property that the work done on the process zone by the surrounding viscoelastic material can contribute to crack growth. The fracture process zone is always contained within the crack tip yield zone and the work done on the yield zone lying outside the process zone is assumed to be entirely dissipated. It is demonstrated that the modified energy balance approach leads to the same crack growth equation which is predicted by Wnuk's final stretch fracture criterion, provided the applied stress is constant and is such that small scale yielding conditions prevail.