Plastic η factor solutions of homogeneous and bi-material SE(T) specimens for toughness and creep crack growth testing

Abstract

Based on slip line field analysis and finite element analysis of elastic-perfectly plastic materials, plastic η factor solutions for single edge-cracked specimens in tension (SE(T)) with a wide range of crack lengths are proposed, both for homogeneous specimens and for bi-material specimens with interface cracks. Moreover, two different plastic η factor solutions are given: one based on experimental load-load line displacement records, ηpVLL, and the other based on experimental load-crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) records, ηpCMOD. Comparison with existing finite element results shows good agreement. For deep cracks (a/w > ∼ 0.45), the ηpVLL solutions are insensitive to the strain hardening, to the specimen length and to the specimen thickness. However, for shallower cracks (a/w < ∼ 0.45), the ηpVLL solutions are sensitive to the specimen thickness, to the strain hardening and to the specimen length, suggesting difficulties associated with a robust determination of F and C* integrals from experimental data. On the other hand, the ηpCMOD solution is not sensitive to the crack length, to the specimen thickness, to strain hardening and to the specimen length, even for shallow cracked specimens. This suggests that the use of CMOD can provide robust F and C* estimation schemes even for shallow crack testing.