INFLUENCE OF BOUNDARY CONDITIONS ON HIGHER ORDER TERMS OF NEAR-CRACK-TIP STRESS FIELD IN A WST SPECIMEN

摘要

A precise description of the stress and deformation fields in a cracked body is provided using multi-parameter fracture mechanics based on the approximation of the fields by means of the Williams' power series. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the stress field in a wedge-splitting test geometry specimen aimed at the calculation of coefficients of the higher order terms (up to 14) of the Williams' expansion. The numerical study is conducted with the use of a conventional finite element package; however, for processing of the results an over-deterministic method is employed. Special attention is paid to the influence of boundary conditions of the test geometry on the values of the coefficients of the higher order terms of the Williams' series. The results are compared to data from the literature; a strong effect of the boundary conditions is observed.