Finite Element Analysis of Small-Scale Yielding Near a Stationary Crack Under Plane Stress

摘要

A detailed finite element analysis of the monotonic loading of a stationary crack is performed under Mode I plane stress, small-scale yielding conditions. A small strain J sub 2 incremental plasticity theory is employed and both elastic-perfectly plastic and power law hardening materials are considered. Some issues such as the range of dominance of the asymptotic stress and deformation fields and the amount of non-proportional loading near the crack tip, which have received wide attention in the analogous plane strain problem, are examined. Special attention is devoted to the perfectly plastic idealization by performing a separate singular finite element analysis to clarify some details about the asymptotic stress and deformation fields. The full-field numerical solution is used to simulate synthetic (optical) caustic patterns at different distances from the tip, which are compared with experimental observations and with asymptotic analytical results.