Edge crack growth for linear elastic body with wavy surface

Abstract

In this paper, the direct boundary element method based on a quadratic discontinuous element is used to investigate the edge crack propagation process for a linear elastic body with wavy surface. The load movement is assumed to be moving away from, moving toward to, and passing through the crack. The effect of waviness, friction and load magnitude are studied. For the cases of load moving away from the crack, if the ratio ϵ/α is smaller than 0.1 where ϵ is the amplitude of the wavy surface, then the effect of waviness may be ignored. For the cases of crack located at trough, the direction of crack propagation turns to a specific direction. This direction depends mainly on the wavy amplitude ϵ and friction force. The extension distance is larger for μ = 0.2 than μ = 0.0 as the load moves towards the crack. This trend is also true for a crack located at the trough of the wavy surface. However the patterns of crack growth are essentially the same. The load position of initial crack propagation may be influenced by friction. For the cases of load passing through the crack, the extension distance before the load passes through the crack is larger than that after the load passes through the crack in most cases studied in this paper.