Cleavage crack growth resistance due to plastic flow around a near-tip dislocation- free region

摘要

Crack growth resistance curves are computed numerically for cases where fracture occurs by atomic separation, so that the length scale of the fracture process is typically much smaller than the dislocation spacing. Here, continuum plasticity would not give realistic stress levels near the crack tip; but plastic yielding far from the tip still adds to the fracture toughness.