Fracture mechanics:

Total Fatigue life composed of two process, i.e initiation and

propagation. And an important point to be considered while
determining the total life is that, we cannot determine when
initiation will terminate and when propagation will start. And
based on the size of the crack, we cannot determine the
transition from initiation to propagation. But researches can
determine it with the help of highly precise microscopic
instruments and non destructive equipments.
So far in last chapters we only concentrated in estimating the
life under initiation process through strain life method. And for
propagation process, we sought the help of fracture mechanics.
Fracture mechanics approaches require that an initial crack
size be known or assumed. For imperfect components
(welding, inclusion) initial crack size can be estimated easily.
But for perfect metals or components, total life determination is
little complicated. But it is still possible through various fracture
mechanics methods.

LINEAR ELASTIC FRACTURE MECHANICS:

This principle used to relate the stress magnitude and stress

distribution near the crack tip to
Remote stress applied to the cracked components
The crack size and shape
Material properties of the cracked components

CONTRIBUTION OF GRIFFITH AND IRWIN:

In 1920 Griffith proposed that a crack in a component will
propagate if the total energy of the system is lowered with
crack propagation.
That is, if the change in elastic strain energy due to crack
extension is larger than the energy required creating new crack
surfaces, crack propagation will occur
GRIFFITHs theory is for brittle material. So in 1940 Irwin
extended the theory for ductile material.
Apart from this, he added that energy due to plastic
deformation must be added to the surface energy associated
with the creation of new crack surfaces.

Surface energyistheworkperunitareadonebytheforcethat
createsthenewsurface

He recognized that for ductile material, the surface energy term

is often negligible compared to the energy associated with
plastic deformation.
And he introduced a quantity G, the strain energy release rate
or crack driving force. G is defined as total energy absorbed
during cracking per unit increase in crack length and per unit
thickness.
Another contribution from Irwin is he showed that local
stresses near the crack tip are of the general form
LEFM ASSUMPTIONS:
LEFM uses the methods used in theory of elasticity. So
assumptions used in theory of elasticity are
1. Small displacement
2. Linearity between stresses and strain.
Question:
What happens if r=0 in equation 3.1? find
LOADING MODES:

The following discussions deals with mode I since this is

Predominant loading mode.
STRESS INTENSITY FACTOR:

The form introduced by IRWIN to find the local stresses has a

very unique term called stress intensity factor, which defines
the magnitude of the local stresses around the crack tip.
It depends on loading, crack size, crack shape and geometrical
boundaries.
Rearranging 3.1 we get,
Above fig 3.4 gives the stress intensity relationships for a few of
the more common loading conditions.
COMPOUNDNG TECHNIQUE:
Stress intensity factor for a complex loading condition of the same
mode can be determined with the help of compounding
technique. This technique reduces the complicated problem
into a number of simpler configurations with known solutions
and all this simpler solution are added using super position
principle. Its equation form will be

Ke is the only unknown and neglecting it will cost us around 10

% error.
Another approximate method is simply to multiply the
individual correction factors for the various geometric effects
such as

The last approach is usage of numerical method or software

packages.
PLASTIC ZONE SIZE:

As a
component reaches yield point, then automatically plastic strain
develops, but plasticity developed up to a certain region. This
region or zone is called plastic zone size.
The size of this plastic zone is dependent on the stress
conditions of the body.
Plane stress and plane strain conditions:
Plane stress
In a thin body, the stress through the thickness cannot vary
appreciably, so stress along thickness is zero.
Plane strain:
In thick plate, we assume z = 0. This condition is called plane
strain condition. But we will have stress along z direction due to
poisons effect.
Now we will discuss the size of plastic zone under mono tonic or
uniaxial tensile test and cyclic plastic zone size
Monotonic plastic zone size : ( MPZS)

Monotonic plastic zone size under monotonic loading have

been estimated using 3.5 aand 3.5 b
And r is estimated using figure 3.7
Cyclic plastic zone size ( CPZS):

The CPZS value is four times smaller than MPZS value. The
reason behind this change is that cyclic loading involves tension
during loading and compression during unloading

Fracture toughness:
When K( stress intensity factor) reaches Kc( critical) , unstable
fracture occurs. This critical value of K is called fracture
toughness of the material.
This is considered to be a limiting factor just as the yield stress
might be considered the limiting value of applied stress.
Where Sc is applied nominal stress at crack instability
ac = crack length at instability
Fracture toughness can be used to obtain critical crack sizes for
fracture under cyclic loading.

The fracture toughness varies with specimen thickness until

limiting conditions (maximum constraint) are reached. General
relationship between fracture toughness and thickness is given
in above figure.
Less thickness: beach mark appears at low cyclic stress intensity
factor. It has high fracture toughness value and shear lips.
( PLANE STRESS CONDITION)
Medium thickness: fracture toughness and shear lip along with
slant fracture decreases. This mode is called mixed mode, but
both slant and shear lip will be there.
Minimum thickness: fracture toughness further reduces and
fracture surface looks unchanged. The minimum value of
fracture toughness is called the plain strain fracture
toughness.KIC
Validity of fracture toughness is based on following relation

OUTCOMES OF PLANE STRAIN FRACTURE TOUGHNESS:

KIC reduces drastically at high yield or ultimate strength as

shown in above figure.
Low impurity material has high KIC
Apart from this fracture toughness change with corrosive
environment and temperature

Fatigue crack growth: