Interaction of a rigid line inclusion with various discontinuities using experimental and numerical techniques

Abstract

Using boundary element method (BEM) and photoelasticity, the interaction effects of a rigid line inclusion with various discontinuities embedded in a matrix are investigated. The interaction effect of discontinuities on a rigid line inclusion has not received much attention when compared to the studies on the interaction effect of discontinuities on a crack. The following discontinuities are considered: rigid circular inclusion, rigid elliptical inclusion, circular hole, elliptical hole, and crack when a tensile load is applied along the inclusion length. A circular hole approaching normal to the line inclusion strengthens the strain fields at the rigid line inclusion tip, whereas a hole along the line inclusion alleviates the strain level. However, in the case of rigid circular inclusion, the opposite trends are observed. The influence of the aspect ratio of the elliptical hole on the elastic fields of a rigid line inclusion is also brought out. The influence of a crack near the vicinity of a rigid line inclusion is also studied. The interaction effects of a circular inclusion, a circular hole, and a crack on the rigid line inclusion are further experimentally analyzed for the first time using the photoelastic technique towards validating the boundary element model. The magnitude of singularity at the inclusion tip is quantified using the strain intensity factor. Also, the magnitude of the stress intensity factor (SIF) at the crack tip is reported. Both the strain intensity factor for rigid line inclusion and the SIF for the crack tip are estimated using the domain integral method.