Numerical and experimental study of the plastic zone in cracked specimens

The crack propagation is influenced by what happens at both the surface and the interior of the component. Traditional experimental tools allow the surface behaviour to be characterised accurately but the information obtained from the bulk is much more limited. In this work, a study of both bulk and surface behaviour is presented. The material behaviour is studied by powerful 3D ultrafine finite element analysis in terms of the crack tip plasticity for a range of different conditions. The analysis is performed on a wedged opening loaded specimen made of an Aluminium alloy. The results are then validated with full-field digital image correlation data. The validation is used to enhance the model used in our analyses.