Crack growth on elastic-plastic bimaterial interfaces

Abstract

Finite element calculation based on finite strain theory is carried out to simulate the crack growth on bimaterial interfaces under the assumption of small scale yielding and plane strain condition. The modified Gurson's constitutive equation and the element vanish technique introduced by Tvergaard et al. are used to model the final formation of an open crack. The crack growths in homogeneous material and in bimaterials are compared. It is found from the calculation that the critical macroscopic fracture toughness for crack growth J _IC is much lower in bimaterials than in homogeneous material. For bimaterial cases, the J _IC of a crack between two elastic-plastic materials which have identical elastic properties with different yield strength is lower than that of a crack between an elastic-plastic material and a rigid substrate. It seems that the difference in yield strength between the dissimilar materials has more significant influence on the void nucleation and crack growth than the difference in hardening exponent.