Elastic and Inelastic Responses of C(T) Specimens With Discontinuous Cracks

Abstract

This paper investigates elastic and elastic–plastic responses of a plane strain compact tension specimen containing a discontinuous crack using two-dimensional (2D) finite element analyses. Discontinuous cracking is represented by modeling two (main and sub) cracks with the distance between them systematically varied. The finite element predictions show that the presence of subcracks has minimal effect on the elastic compliance and potential difference but significantly influences the plastic limit loads and load line displacements (LLDs). The evaluation of the elastic and elastic–plastic behavior of the J-integrals evaluated using different contours for discontinuous cracks are also examined and explained.