Crack Growth and Energy Release Rate for an Angled Crack under Mixed Mode Loading

Featured Application Damage fracture for engineering materials. The evaluation of energy release rate with angle is still a challenging task in metal crack propagation analysis, especially for the mixed Mode I-II-III loading situation. In this paper, the energy release rate associated with stress intensity factors at an arbitrary angle under mixed mode loadings has been investigated using both a numerical method and theoretical derivation. A relatively simple and precise numerical method was established through a series of spatial-inclined ellipses in Mode I-II and ellipsoids in Mode I-II-III, with different propagation angles computed from simulation. Meanwhile, a theoretical expression of the energy release rate with angle for a crack tip under a I-II-III mixed mode crack was deduced based on the propagation mechanism of the crack tip under the influence of a stress field. It is confirmed that the theoretical expression deduced could provide results as accurately as the present numerical method. The present results were confirmed to be effective and accurate by comparison with experimental data and other literature.