A weight function method for the assessment of partially?closed three-dimensional plane cracks

H. LOPEZ MONTENEGRO; A.P. CISILINO; J.L. OTEGUI

Engineering Fracture Mechanics

ELSEVIER

Año: 2008 vol. 75 p. 4486 - 4500

0013-7944

A low cost numerical tool for the calculation of mode I stress intensity factors K in embedded and surface irregular cracks is presented in this paper. The proposed tool is an extension of the O-integral algorithm due to Oore and Burns for the assessment of embedded plane cracks using the weight function methodology. The performance of the O-integral is assessed first by comparing its results to exact solutions for embedded elliptical and rectangular cracks. From the analysis of this data it is found that the error in the results systematically depends on the crack aspect ratio and the local crack front curvature. Based on this evidence a corrective function is derived in order to remediate the limitations of the O-integral. Solutions due to Newman and Raju are used to account for the effects of free surfaces and finite thickness. The accuracy of the proposed procedure is assessed by solving a number of examples and by comparing the obtained results to those available in the literature.