Effect of pure mode I, II or III loading or mode mixity on crack growth in a homogeneous solid

Crack growth is analyzed numerically under combined mode I, II and III loading, or under loading in one of these modes alone. The solid is a ductile metal modelled as elastic–plastic, and the fracture process is represented in terms of a cohesive zone model. The analyses are carried out for conditions of small-scale yielding, with the elastic mixed mode solution applied as boundary conditions on the outer edge of the region analyzed. For pure mode I loading crack growth continued far beyond the maximum fracture toughness shows that the predicted subsequent steady-state toughness is well below the maximum. The reason for this is discussed in terms of the local stress and strain fields around the tip. For pure mode II or mode III loading it is shown that there is no maximum before the steady-state. Also results for different mixed mode conditions are presented and discussed in relation to the results for loading in only one mode. Most of the results are based on assuming that the peak tractions for tangential separation are equal to that for normal separation, but it is shown that a relatively smaller peak traction for tangential separation may significantly affect the predictions.