Experimental determination of the C∗ parameter for a plate with a surface crack and submitted to bending

Abstract

This article deals with the experimental determination of the C ∗ parameter for a surface crack in a plate submitted to a bending moment. The first part describes the experimental device and the data acquisition performed during the creep test. From this data acquisition, a proposition is made to determine C ∗. In the second part, a finite element calculation series is performed to confirm the proposition. It concerns 3D creep calculation on plates with a surface defect in which the C ∗ parameter is determined and correlated to the crack mouth opening angle rate. It is shown that the proposition has a small dependence on the creep law of the material and can be easily generalized to any surface defect geometry.