Out-of-plane deviation of a mode I+III crack encountering a tougher obstacle

Abstract

One possible explanation of out-of-plane deviations of cracks loaded in mode I+III was suggested by Gao and Rice in 1986. These authors noted that small in-plane undulations of the crack front, arising from fluctuations of the fracture toughness, should generate a small local mode-II component, causing the crack to depart from planarity. Their analysis is completed here by explicitly calculating the evolution in time of the out-of-plane deviation of a mode-I+III crack encountering a tougher obstacle. The calculation is based on (i) first-order formulae for the stress intensity factors of a crack slightly perturbed within and out of its plane; and (ii) a “double” propagation criterion combining a Griffith condition on the local energy-release rate and a Goldstein–Salganik condition on the local stress intensity factor of mode II. It is predicted that the crack must evolve toward a stationary state, wherein the orthogonal distance from the average fracture plane to the perturbed crack front is constant outside the obstacle and varies linearly across it. We hope that this theoretical prediction will encourage comparison with experiments, and propose a fracture test involving propagation of a mode-I+III crack through a 3D-printed specimen containing some designed obstacle.