Fracture Mechanics Prof.

Aamir Mubashar
 Fractured vessel in dry dock Bilge keel from which the fracture initiated

In 1979, the Kurdistan oil tanker broke completely in

two while sailing in the North Atlantic
The combination of warm oil in the tanker with cold water in contact with the outer hull produced substantial thermal
stresses. The fracture initiated from a bilge keel that was improperly welded. The weld failed to penetrate the structural
detail, resulting in a severe stress concentration. Although the hull steel had adequate toughness to prevent fracture
initiation, it failed to stop the propagating crack
 Fracture

• What is Fracture?
• Separation of an object under stress
• Results in two or more new surfaces

 How does fracture proceed?

 Crack initiation
 Crack propagation

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Types of Fracture
• Brittle / Fast Fracture
• Structural elements fail with little or no plastic deformation
• Often sudden failure; no prior warning
• Usually strain is < 5%

• Ductile Fracture
• Appreciable plastic deformation occurs prior to and during the fracture
process

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Fracture Mechanics
• FRACTURE MECHANICS is the science of predicting the load carrying
capabilities of structures and components containing cracks
• It is based on a mathematical description of the stress field that
surrounds a crack in a loaded body
• Categories
• Linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) and
• Elastic-plastic fracture mechanics (EPFM)

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Fracture Mechanics
• Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics
• Crack tip is sharp and there is only a small amount of plastic deformation at or
near the crack tip
• LEFM is used for high-strength metals, such as high-strength steels, titanium,
and aluminum alloys
• Elastic-Plastic Fracture Mechanics
• Used when the crack tip is not sharp and there is some crack tip plasticity
(blunting)
• EPFM is used in the design of materials, such as lower-strength, higher-
toughness steels

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Effect of Material Properties on Fracture

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Linear Elastic
Fracture
Mechanics
(LEFM)
Fracture at Atomic Level
• A material fractures when sufficient
stress and work are applied on the
atomic level to break the bonds that
hold atoms together.
• The bond strength is supplied by the
attractive forces between atoms.
• Schematic plots of the potential
energy and force versus separation
distance between atoms.
• The equilibrium spacing occurs
where the potential energy is at a
minimum
Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Fracture at Atomic Level
• A tensile force is required to increase the separation distance from
the equilibrium value
• This force must exceed the cohesive force to sever the bond
completely. The bond energy is given by

• where xo is the equilibrium spacing and P the applied force

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Fracture at Atomic Level
• Cohesive strength at the atomic level by idealizing the interatomic
force–displacement relationship as one-half the period of a sine wave

• For small displacements, the force–displacement relationship is linear

• Bond stiffness is given by (spring constant)

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Fracture at Atomic Level
• Multiplying both sides by the number of bonds per unit area and gage
length, xo
• Converts k to Young’s modulus, E
• Pc to the cohesive stress, σc
• Solving for σc gives
if λ is assumed to be approximately
• Surface energy equal to the atomic spacing.

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Fracture at Atomic Level
• Surface energy per unit area, γs, is equal to one-half the fracture
energy per area because two surfaces are created when a material
fractures
• Substituting value of lambda and solving for σc

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Stress Concentration
• Theoretical cohesive strength of a material is approximately E/π
• Experimental fracture strengths for brittle materials are typically 3 or
4 orders of magnitude below this value
• Discrepancy between the actual strengths of brittle materials and
theoretical estimates was due to flaws
• Flaws lower the global strength by magnifying the stress locally

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Stress Concentration
• An elliptical hole 2a long by 2b wide with an
applied stress perpendicular to the major
axis of the ellipse
• Plate width ≫2a and the plate height ≫2b
• Stress at the tip of the major axis (point A)

• Ratio σA/σ is defined as the stress concentration factor, kt

• When a = b, the hole is circular and kt = 3.0
Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Stress Concentration
• As the major axis, a, increases relative to b, the elliptical hole
becomes a sharp crack
• For this case, equation is written in terms of the radius of curvature, ρ

where

• When a ≫ b
• Predicts an infinite stress at the tip of an infinitely sharp crack, where ρ = 0
• Thus, a material that contains a sharp crack theoretically should fail upon
the application of an infinitesimal load Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Material Failure Based on Stress Value
• Approach where fracture is controlled by stress at the tip of the crack,
is not a valid failure model in general
• When there is a significant stress gradient in the structure, failure is
generally not governed by a single high-stress point
• Consider a beam where a bending moment is imposed such that the
outer fibre stresses reach yield
• Beam still has load capacity because the stress is below yield
everywhere except at the outer fibres.
• There is a steep stress gradient at a crack, so the stress at the tip does
not govern fracture

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Griffith Energy Balance
• First Law of Thermodynamics: when a system
goes from a nonequilibrium state to
equilibrium, there will be a net decrease in
energy
• A crack can form (or an existing crack can
grow) only if such a process causes the total
energy to decrease or to remain constant
• Plate subjected to a constant stress, σ, which
contains a crack 2a long
• Assume that the plate width ≫2a and that
plane stress conditions prevail
Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Griffith Energy Balance
• In order for this crack to increase in size, sufficient potential energy
must be available in the plate to overcome the surface energy
• Griffith energy balance for incremental increase in the crack area, dA

• where E is the total energy

• Π the internal energy
• Ws is the work required to create new surfaces Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Griffith Energy Balance
• For the cracked plate

• where Πo is the potential energy of an uncracked plate and B is the

plate thickness
• Ws is given by

and

• Equating the two above eqs

Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Modified Griffith Equation (Irwin Equation)
• Irwin and Orowan modified the Griffith expression to account for
materials with plastic flow

• where γp is the plastic work per unit area of surface created and is
typically much larger than γs
• Generalized form of Griffith model to account for any type of energy
dissipation

• where wf is the fracture energy that may include plastic, viscoelastic,

or viscoplastic effects Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Example Problem
A flat plate made from a brittle material contains a macroscopic
through-thickness crack with half-length a1 and notch tip radius ρ. A
sharp penny-shaped microcrack with radius a2 is located near the tip of
the larger flaw. Estimate the minimum size of the microcrack to cause
failure in the plate when the Griffith equation is satisfied by the global
stress and a1.

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Example Problem
• The nominal stress at failure is obtained by substituting a1 into
Equation

• Stress in the vicinity of the microcrack can be estimated from

• which is set equal to the Griffith criterion for the penny-shaped

microcrack

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Example Problem

• Solving for a2

• For ν = 0.3, a2 = 0.68 ρ

• Thus, the nucleating microcrack must be approximately the size of the
macroscopic crack tip radius

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Energy Release Rate
• Irwin defined an energy release rate, G, which is a measure of the
energy available for an increment of crack extension

• G is the rate of change in potential energy with crack area

• Energy release rate for a wide plate in plane stress with a crack of
length 2a (slide 20)

• Crack extension occurs when G reaches a critical value; that is

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Energy Release Rate
• G is a measure of fracture toughness of the material
• Potential energy of an elastic body, Π, is

where U is the strain energy and F is the work done by external forces

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Energy Release Rate
• Consider a cracked plate that is dead loaded
• Since the load is fixed at P, the structure is said to be load controlled

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Energy Release Rate
• When displacement is fixed, the plate is displacement controlled: F = 0
and Π = U

• Compliance, inverse of plate stiffness

• Thus, for both load and

displacement control
Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Energy Release Rate
• Moreover

• In load control, a crack extension da results in a net increase in strain

energy because of the contribution of the external force P

• When displacement is fixed, dF = 0 and the strain energy decreases

• where dP is negative
Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Energy Release Rate
• Absolute values of these energies differ by the amount dPdΔ/2, which
is negligible. Thus

for an increment of crack growth at a given P and Δ

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Example Problem
• Determine the energy release rate for a double cantilever beam (DCB)
specimen

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Example Problem

• From beam theory

• Energy release rate

• Elastic compliance

• Substituting C
Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Instability and R Curve

• Crack extension occurs when G = 2wf

• Crack growth may be stable or unstable, depending on how G and wf
vary with crack size
• Convenient to replace 2wf with R, the material resistance to crack
extension
• Plot of R versus crack extension is called a resistance curve or R curve
• Corresponding plot of G versus crack size is the driving force curve

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Instability and R Curve
• Consider a wide plate with a through crack of initial length 2a0
• At remote stress, σ, the energy release rate varies linearly with crack size

• Conditions for stable crack growth

• Unstable crack growth occurs

Prof. Aamir Mubashar
 Instability and R Curve

• Material resistance is constant with crack

growth
• When the stress = σ1, the crack is stable
• Fracture occurs when stress reaches σ2
• Crack propagation is unstable because driving
force increases with crack growth, but the
material resistance remains constant

Schematic driving force/R curve (a) flat R curve

Prof. Aamir Mubashar
 Instability and R Curve
• Material with a rising R curve
• Crack grows a small amount when the
stress reaches σ2, but cannot grow
further unless the stress increases
• When stress is fixed at σ2, the driving
force increases at a slower rate than R
• Stable crack growth continues as the
stress increases to σ3
• Finally, when the stress reaches σ4, the
driving force curve is tangent to the R
curve
• Plate is unstable with further crack
growth because the rate of change in
driving force exceeds the slope of the R
Schematic driving force/R curve (b) rising R curve
curve
Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Instability and R Curve
• When the resistance curve is flat, can define a critical value of energy
release rate, Gc, unambiguously
• A material with a rising R curve, however, cannot be uniquely characterized
with a single toughness value
• A flawed structure fails when the driving force curve is tangent with the R
curve, but this point of tangency depends on the shape of the driving force
curve, which depends on the configuration of the structure
• Driving force curve for the through-crack configuration is linear
• But G in the DCB specimen varies with a2
• These two configurations would have different Gc values for a given R curve
Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Stress Analysis of Cracks
• For certain cracked configurations subjected
to external forces, it is possible to derive
closed-form expressions for the stresses in
the body
• Assuming isotropic linear elastic material
• Define a polar coordinate axis with the origin
at crack tip
• Stress field in any linear elastic cracked body
is given by

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Stress Analysis of Cracks

• where σij is the stress tensor; k a constant; and fij is a dimensionless

function of θ in the leading term. For the higher-order terms, Am is the
amplitude and gij is a dimensionless function of θ
• Higher-order terms depend on the geometry
• Any given configuration contains a leading term that is proportional to 1/r
• As r → 0, the leading term approaches infinity
• Thus, stress near the crack tip varies with 1/ r, regardless of the
configuration of the cracked body
• Displacement near the crack tip varies with r
• There is stress singularity, since stress is asymptotic to r = 0 Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Stress Analysis of Cracks
• There are three types of loading that a
crack can experience
• Mode I loading, where the principal load
is applied normal to the crack plane, tends
to open the crack
• Mode II corresponds to in-plane shear
loading and tends to slide one crack face
with respect to the other
• Mode III refers to out-of-plane shear
• A cracked body can be loaded in any one
of these modes, or a combination of two
or three modes
Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Stress Intensity Factor
• Each mode of loading produces the 1/r singularity at the crack tip, but
the proportionality constant, k, and fij depend on the mode
• Replace k by the stress intensity factor, K, where 𝐾 = 𝑘 2𝜋
• Stress intensity factor is given a subscript to denote the mode of
loading; KI, KII, or KIII
• Stress fields ahead of a crack tip in
an isotropic linear elastic material

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

 Stress Intensity Factor
Stress Fields Ahead of a Crack Tip for Modes I and II in a Linear Elastic, Isotropic Material

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

 Stress Intensity Factor
Crack Tip Displacement Fields for Modes I and II (Linear Elastic, Isotropic Material)

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Stress Intensity Factor

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Stress Intensity Factor

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Stress Intensity Factor

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Stress Intensity Factor

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Stress Intensity Factor

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Relationship between K and Global Stress
• Must be able to determine K from remote loads and geometry
• Closed-form solutions for K have been derived for a number of simple
configurations
• For more complex situations, the stress intensity factor can be
estimated by experiment or numerical analysis
• For a through crack in an infinite plate subjected to tensile stress

• Stress intensity factor for Mode II loading can be obtained by

replacing σ by applied shear stress
Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Relationship between K and Global Stress
• For a semi-infinite plate with an edge crack

• 12% increase in KI for the edge crack is

caused by different boundary conditions
at the free edge
• General form of this equation is

Material
𝐾𝐼𝑐 = 𝑌𝜎𝑐 𝜋𝑐
Allowable flaw
Property: size or NDT flaw
Material Geometry
detection
Selection correction Design stress
factor Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Principal of Superposition
• For linear elastic materials, stress intensity factors are additive as long
as the mode of loading is consistent

• But

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Relationship Between K and G
• Energy release rate describes the global behavior,
while K is a local parameter
• For a through crack in an infinite plate subject to a
uniform tensile stress

• Relationship between K and G

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Crack Tip Plasticity
• In real materials, stresses at the crack tip are finite because the crack
tip radius must be finite
• Inelastic material deformation, such as plasticity in metals and crazing
in polymers, leads to further relaxation of crack tip stresses
• Elastic stress analysis becomes increasingly inaccurate as the inelastic
region at the crack tip grows
• Size of the crack tip yielding zone can be estimated by Irwin approach

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Irwin Approach to Crack Tip Plasticity
• Assume boundary between elastic and
plastic behavior occurs when yielding
occurs σyy = σYS
• Substituting yield strength and solving for r
gives estimate of plastic zone size

• Represented by a horizontal line in figure

Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Irwin Approach to Crack Tip Plasticity
• Irwin accounted for plastic zone by defining an effective crack length
• Effective crack length is defined as the sum of the actual crack size
and a plastic zone correction

• Effective stress intensity

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Elastic-Plastic
Fracture
Mechanics
(EPFM)
Elastic-Plastic Fracture Mechanics (EPFM)
• Virtually impossible to characterize the fracture behavior with LEFM,
and an alternative fracture mechanics model is required
• Applies to materials that exhibit time-independent, non-linear
behavior (i.e., plastic deformation)
• Rice showed that the nonlinear energy release rate, J, could be
written as a path-independent line integral
• Hutchinson, Rice and Rosengren also showed that J uniquely
characterizes crack tip stresses and strains in nonlinear materials
• J integral can be viewed as both an energy parameter and a stress
intensity parameter

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

J Contour Integral
• Arbitrary counter-clockwise path (Γ) around the tip of a crack

• Value of the J integral is independent of the path of integration

around the crack

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

J Contour Integral

• Ti are components of the traction vector

• ui are the displacement vector components
• ds is a length increment along the contour Γ
• w is the strain energy density given by

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Crack Growth Resistance Curves

• Many materials with high toughness do not fail catastrophically at a

particular value of J
• Rather, these materials display a rising resistance (R) curve, where J
increase with crack growth
• In metals, a rising R curve is normally associated with growth and
coalescence of micro voids

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Crack Growth Resistance Curves
• In initial stages of deformation, the
R curve is relatively steep; there is a
small amount of apparent crack
growth due to blunting
• As J increases, the material at the
crack tip fails locally and the crack
advances further
• Because the R curve is rising, the
initial crack growth is usually stable,
but an instability can be
encountered later
Prof. Aamir Mubashar
Crack Growth Resistance Curves
• Slope of the R curve at a given amount of crack extension is indicative
of the relative stability of the crack
• A material with a steep R curve is less likely to experience unstable
crack propagation
• For J resistance curves, the slope is usually quantified by a
dimensionless tearing modulus

Prof. Aamir Mubashar

Reference
• Fracture Mechanics – Fundamentals and Applications by T. L.
Anderson, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group

Prof. Aamir Mubashar