FULL SOLUTION FOR CHARACTERIZING STRESS FIELDS NEAR THE TIP OF MODE-I CRACK UNDER PLANE AND POWER-LAW PLASTIC CONDITIONS

In the fields of aerospace, ships, oil pipelines and nuclear power, there will be cracks inevitably in structure or component part when running for a long time under extreme conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the features of the stress-strain fields near the crack tip, to study the quasi-static fracture behavior of cracked structures. In this paper, the stress distributions near the tip of mode-I cracked specimens under plane strain and plane stress conditions are studied for power-law hardening material. Based on the energy density equivalence and dimensional analysis, the analytical equation of equivalent stress of representative volume element (RVE) with the median energy density of a finite-dimensions specimen is proposed, and it is defined as the stress factor. Furthermore, for compact tension (CT) and single edge bend (SEB) finite size specimens under plane strain and plane stress conditions, the stress factor is used as a characteristic variable, and a special trigonometric function is assumed to characterize butterfly-wings type or scallop type contour lines of the equivalent stress near the mode-I crack tip, and then a semi-analytical model for compact tension specimens and single edge bend specimens under plane strain and plane stress and fully plastic conditions is proposed to describe the stress fields near the crack tip. As shown in comparing results given by finite element analysis to those predicted by the model for stress fields near the crack tip of the two cracked specimens, all agree well with each other. The semi-analytical model of stress field near the crack tip proposed in this paper is simple in form and accurate in result. It can be directly used to predict the stress distribution near the tip of mode-I crack, which is convenient for fracture safety evaluation and theoretical development.