Fully plastic crack problems: The center-cracked strip under plane strain

Crack problems are formulated for solids characterized by a pure power hardening relation between the stresses and the strains. For such problems there are simple functional relationships between the amplitude of the dominant crack-tip singularity, as measured by the path-independent J-integral, and the applied load, the load point displacement, and the crack opening displacement. The solutions are valid for both incremental and deformation theories of plasticity; they also apply to problems involving steady-state creep. Numerical results are presented for the center-cracked strip of finite width under plane strain conditions. A preliminary discussion is given of the applicability of the solutions to large scale yielding fracture mechanics.