M-integral analysis for cracks in a viscoplastic material with extended finite element method

The M-integral can be used to quantify complex damage in materials subjected to mechanical deformation. However, the effect of viscoplasticity on the damage level associated with the M-integral has not been studied yet. In this paper, the variation of the M-integral associated with viscoplastic deformation was investigated numerically using a user-defined material subroutine. Effects of creep deformation and loading rate on the M-integral were also evaluated. In particular, the association of crack growth with the evolution of the M-integral was captured by the extended finite element method for different crack configurations. It was found that viscoplastic deformation has a great effect on the damage evolution of viscoplastic materials characterized by the M-integral. Crack growth leads to an increase of the M-integral, indicating progressive damage of the materials. Concerning the secondary cracks formed around a major crack, the results show that the M-integral is highly dependent on the numbers and locations of those secondary cracks. Shielding effect is mostly evident for microcracks with centres located just behind or vertically in line with the major crack tip. With the increasing number of microcracks, the shielding effect tends to decrease as reflected by the increasing M-integral values.