Energy release rates in patched cracked plates

✍ Scribed by Ramesh Chandra; K. Guruprasad; K. Dwarakanath

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 788 KB
• Volume: 31
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0013-7944
• DOI: 10.1016/0013-7944(88)90229-9

✦ Synopsis

The fatigue and fracture performance of a cracked plate can be significandy improved by reinforcing it with high modulus composite material. The reduction in valid fracture mechanics parameters like energy release rate (G) or stress intensity factor (SIF) is measure of effectiveness of the reinforcement. Hence, it is necessary to determine the values of these parameters for plates with and without reinforcements accurately. In this paper, a finite element technique using a general purpose software (ASKA) to compute SIF through G for plates with and without patch reinforcement is presented. The patched plate is modelled by TRIM6, TRUMPL and QUAD4L. Energy release rate is computed by using the crack-closure integral method. Many crack increments are considered and the need to compute G by extrapolation for zero increment is emphasized. The influence of patch thickness and patch position on SIF (determined via G) is presented in graphical form.