EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL-STUDIES OF THE J-INTEGRAL FOR A SURFACE FLAW

Applied J-integral values for a surface cracked tensile panel are experimentally evaluated by measuring strain and displacement quantities along an instrumented contour located on the longitudinal symmetry plane. Nonlinear, 3-D, finite-element analyses are employed to obtain corresponding estimates of the contour and area integral contributions to a 3-D J-integral. Finite element results indicate that the area integral contribution is negligibly small on the symmetry plane; the fracture driving force is thus adequately characterized by the experimental contour values. Detailed comparisons of the experimental and numerical results (crack mouth opening displacement, J-values, and strains along the contour) reveal that the one-quarter symmetric, finite element model accurately predicts the panel response for overall (gauge length) strains approaching 1.6 times the material yield strain, beyond which the observed deformation patterns exhibited globally asymmetric shear bands. © 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers.