Numerical models to determine the effect of soft and hard inclusions on different plastic zones of a fatigue crack in a C(T) specimen

Cyclic damage progression at the fatigue crack tip plays a crucial role on fatigue crack growth. The size and shape of cyclic plastic zone are important to understand the cyclic damage evolution at the fatigue crack tip. An in-depth plane strain elasto-plastic finite element analysis was conducted on a compact tension specimen to determine the size and shape of plastic zones in presence of soft and hard inclusions. It is noticed that the size and shape of the monotonic and cyclic plastic zones are affected by position, size and orientation of the soft inclusion. However, presence hard inclusion has little effect on the size and shape of plastic zones.