Elastic–Plastic Crack Growth

The asymptotic structure of near-tip stress and deformation fields is analyzed for cracks growing in elastic–perfectly plastic solids. A general formulation is presented for materials of arbitrary yield condition and associated flow rule, including anisotropic response, although detailed results are presented only for isotropic materials of the Huber–Mises type. Centered fan sectors of singular straining at a crack tip are shown to be general, independent of details of material response, as are also the types of plastic strain singularities associated with stationary and growing cracks. Previously results for the Huber–Mises material are recovered by specialization from the general formulation, some corrections are made, and recent work on using results of such a near-tip analysis as a basis for predicting plane strain stable crack growth is reviewed briefly.