Importance of the Higher Order Terms of the Williams series expansion: Experimental Aspects and Finite Element Simulations

Abstract

The study is devoted to the multi-point Williams series expansion for the crack-tip fields in isotropic linear elastic materials and methods of estimating the coefficients of higher order terms in the power expansion. It is shown that higher order terms are very important in processing of the experimental data obtained from interference – optic methods. It is demonstrated that the accurate interpretation of the experimental data requires keeping, considering and evaluating the higher order terms of the Williams expansion. A large cohort of experiments on cracked specimens from optically sensitive materials using digital photoelasticity method was performed. The interference fringe patterns obtained show that the correct description of the stress fields in the vicinity can be given if we take into account higher order terms in the asymptotic presentation of the near crack tip fields. Two interference-optical methods were used. Digital photoelasticity method and digital holography interferometry technique are applied for determination of the coefficients of the Williams series expansion. It is shown that we can restore theoretically the stress field in the vicinity of the crack tip if at least fifteen terms in the power expansion are hold. The classical over-deterministic method is used for the evaluation of the coefficients.