Investigating the Effect of Crack’s Inclination on Strain Energy and Stress Intensity under Uniaxial Loading

Abstract

The component’s strength and reliability are greatly influenced by the occurrence of cracks and flaws. Material surfaces or internal defects can create stress concentration, which causes failure of the materials. To quantify the stress intensity factor (SIF) and strain energy release rate (SERR) around the tips of the crack, numerical simulation has been performed on a plate of central crack with Comsol Multiphysics. The SIF and SERR with varying uniaxial stress loading (5, 10, 15, 20, 25 MPa) and crack’s angle (0°–180°) were determined using the J-integral method. The results show that the crack’s maximum opening and sliding displacement occurred at an angle of 90° and 45° respectively. For mode I, the SIFs were maximum at the crack’s inclination of 90° and for mode II, it was maximum at an angle of 45°. Similarly, the SERR was also found to be maximum when the crack was normal to the applied stress and observed to increase with the increase in applied stress.