Abstract
The interaction among different sizes of cracks in materials is one of the key factors leading to the damage of brittle materials. Based on the Kachanov method, the expressions for the stress intensity factors of two collinear cracks with unequal length were obtained and the interaction effect was analyzed. A compression test of a cement mortar specimen containing two cracks and numerical analysis usingRFPA2Dwere performed. The results indicate that the crack interaction can almost be neglected when the crack distance reaches the length of the large crack; the two respective collinear cracks in the specimen grow and do not affect each other when the crack distance reaches the large crack length. The results of compression test and numerical analysis are both in agreement with the theoretical result.
Highlights
Brittle materials, such as rocks, concrete, and ceramics, contain a large number of inhomogeneities, such as soft and hard inclusions, pores and microcracks
The results indicate that the crack interaction can almost be neglected when the crack distance reaches the length of the large crack; the two respective collinear cracks in the specimen grow and do not affect each other when the crack distance reaches the large crack length
Based on the Kachanov method, the expressions for the stress intensity factor of two unequal collinear cracks were derived to analyze the interaction between the two cracks
Summary
Brittle materials, such as rocks, concrete, and ceramics, contain a large number of inhomogeneities, such as soft and hard inclusions, pores and microcracks. Kachanov [14] proposed a simple method for estimating the stress intensity factors (SIFs) for cracks in elastic solids and analyzed the interaction among multiple cracks. One of the key assumptions in the Kachanov method is that the traction in a crack is assumed to be composed of a uniform component and a nonuniform component, and the effect of the nonuniform component is ignored This method can be used to construct the stress and displacement fields in the solid [15]. Based on the Kachanov method and the alternating iteration technique, a new method [24] was proposed to address the problem of the strongly interacted multiple cracks in an infinite plate. Based on the Kachanov method [14], the expressions for the SIFs at the tips of the unequal cracks were obtained, and the influence of the crack length and crack distance on the interaction was analyzed
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
