Issue 33

R.C.O. Góes et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 33 (2015) 89-96; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.33.12 90 investigated 3D LE fields on tensioned plates, concluding that SCF along 3D notch tips depend on their shape and thickness-to-tip-radius ratio B/  . Although the stresses along the notch front  y0 may vary significantly, the stress ratio distributions ahead of the notch tips at any given z’ plane  y (x, z’)/  y0 (z’) are almost z -independent. Particularly, the  ymp (x)/  y0mp ratio along the notched plate mid-plane z  0 is almost insensitive to the plate thickness B and to the notch shape up to x/   0.75 , and can be approximated by its 2D solution. Moreover, the 3D affected zone is almost independent of the notch shape for notches with a/ρ ≥ 1 , and it is limited to a distance of about 3B/8 from the notch tip. The transversal constraint along the notch tip T z0 is maximal at the notch mid-plane and decreases to zero close to the plate free surface. The through-thickness variation of the transversal constraint along the notch tip T z0 (z)/T z0mp is also nearly independent of the notch shape, and the constraint level decays with the distance from the notch tip. Unlike cracks, notches have finite tip radii and cannot provide enough constraint to reach limit pl-  conditions along the notch tip thickness. So, instead of the single SCF value traditionally used in 2D analyses K t   max /  n  max /  n , independent stress and strain concentration factors K    max /  n and K   max /  n must be used to analyze 3D notch problems, even in LE cases. The constraint gradient along the x -direction at the mid-plane ( z  0 ) of notched plates T zmp (x)/T z0mp is almost independent of the notch tip radius and depth, and can be well fitted by     0 2 4 ( ) 1 4.35 1 0.686 1 0.686 z mp z mp T x T x B x B            (3) 3D crack solutions are scarce as well. Bazant and Estenssoro [12] related the stress field singularity of ideal crack tips at the free surface with the angle  with which the crack intersects it. For pure mode I cracks they showed that the SIF K I must be zero on the free surface for    /2 . For the crack to achieve a r  1/2 singularity, the    /2 value solely depends on  . Nakamura and Parks [13-14] studied 3D LE fields around ideally straight crack fronts in thick plates within the SIF- dominated zone, modeling that region as a disk of radius R centered at the tip, assuming the crack size a long compared to the cracked plate thickness ( a >> B ). The disk boundary ( r  R ) was assumed loaded by the displacement field generated by the 2D SIF K I and K II applied on the plate, the so-called Boundary Layer (BL) model. Strong 3D effects were observed within a distance r  B/2 from the crack tip, with a 3D-2D transition occurring within B/2 < r < 3B/2 . The SIF was shown to significantly vary along the crack front when compared with 2D predictions. However, albeit ingenious, 3D BL models have some limitations. They assume that the cracks are much longer than the thickness, thus they do not model well small cracks, with size a  B or smaller, an important problem for fatigue predictions. In addition, the cracked plate stress field is obtained assuming that the plate is far-field loaded by the 2D stresses induced by the SIF applied on it. Hence, all K -field assumptions are incorporated by BL models. For instance, K - description for the (assumed LE) stress fields in cracked components is strictly valid only very close to the crack tips, exactly where plasticity-induced perturbations tend to invalidate it. Such assumptions also fail to describe the situation where the 3D affected zone surpasses the K -dominated region. Moreover, since K -fields do not reproduce the nominal stresses far from the crack tips [15], non-negligible effects induced by high  n cannot be accounted for by them. Furthermore, ideally straight cracks are just a convenient mathematical hypothesis, as tests show that they propagate with slightly curved fronts, a phenomenon known as crack tunneling. Extensive research on this phenomenon shows that the curved front shape in a through-cracked plate can present a tunneling depth ( a max  a surf ) up to 0.05 B [16]. This slight curvature brings considerable impact on 3D SIF calculations along the crack front. This work first revisits the literature on 3D LE stress analysis around notch tips and discusses the importance of 3D effects on notch design issues. Then it uses powerful sub-modeling techniques, which eliminate the K -field domination and long crack hypothesis limitations, to numerically simulate 3D SIF distributions for large single-edge cracked plates with several B/a ratios, and to evaluate their influence on the K I distribution. To illustrate how 3D issues can be important to explain practical problems, the growth of an initially straight-front crack with initial length a 0 , assuming it can be described by the classical Paris rule, is simulated to evaluate how the crack front shape and the local SIF distribution along the crack tip front change as the crack grows until achieving a stable slightly curved front. 3D EFFECTS ON STRESS FIELDS AROUND NOTCH TIPS o evaluate typical notch-induced 3D stress concentration effects around notch tips, several elliptical holes (EH) and semi-elliptical (SE) notches with semi-axes a and b in large tensioned plates of width W and height H were simulated in ABAQUS, using finite sizes W/a  H/a  60 to avoid boundary effects within 1% error. To verify similar previously published results, E  200GPa and   0.33 are used, although   0.29 would better match the chosen T