Abstract
This chapter discusses the plasticity effects around a crack tip; for example, the stress and deformation fields, plastic zone size and shape, and crack tip opening displacement (CTOD). Knowledge of the plastic zone shape and size around a crack is useful to understand the plasticity effect on the fracture behavior of solids. Solutions of stresses in both elastic and plastic regions are required to determine the plastic zone shape. If the plastic zone around the crack tip is small compared to the region in which the crack tip K-fields apply, the singular elastic stress fields is used to estimate the plastic zone shape. The estimates thus obtained, however, are the first-order approximations because the stress redistribution caused by the small plastic zone is not considered. In elastic-plastic fracture mechanics, a parallel issue to the elastic crack tip K-field is the stress and deformation fields near a crack tip in an elastic-plastic material. The chapter also discusses energy release rate concept in elastic-plastic materials. Energy release rate plays a very important role in Griffith's theory of fracture. It is a common notion that a crack extends because of the surplus energy released to provide the energy needed in creating new surfaces during crack growth.
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