Issue 48

F. V. Antunes et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 48 (2019) 676-692; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.48.64

Figure 3 : Loading and boundary conditions of the CTS specimen.

Figure 4 : Typical finite element mesh (x=52.5; y=0;  =20º).

P RESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF NUMERICAL RESULTS

T

he stress intensity factors (K I ) depend on: - the geometry of the specimen, characterized by its width, W; - the geometry of the crack, characterized by the Cartesian coordinates of its tip (x P , y P , K II

) and by the slope at its tip

(  in Fig. 1); - the magnitude and direction of the load, which can be characterized by  (=F/(w  t), being t the thickness of the specimen) and  (Figs. 2 and 3), respectively:

, K K f I II  

(2)

( , , 

, , )  

, W x y

P P

The number of independent variables can be reduced using Buckingham’s theorem of non dimensional analysis  17  . Considering  and x the primary variables, the following non-dimensional relations can be obtained: K x y I Y f( , , α β,β) I W W σ. π.x     (3)

K x y II f( ,  

(4)



, α β,β) 

Y

II

W W

σ. π.x

This approach reduces the number of independent variables, and Y I , Y II

are independent of unit system and can be used

to specimens similar to present one, which is interesting since CTS specimen is not a standard geometry. To obtain relations 3 and 4 several numerical analyses were performed in order to obtain Y I and Y II for the different independent parameters. The values considered for x were 32.5, 37.5, 42.5, 47.5, 52.5, 57.5, 62.5 and 67.5 mm, and for y were 0, 5, 10 and 15 mm. Only zero and positive values were considered for y because crack deflects always towards mode

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