Reassessment of the virtual crack closure technique for interface cracks

Abstract eng:
The Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT) was first presented in 1977 for cracks in linear elastic, homogeneous and isotropic material. It was extended to cracks along an interface between two linear elastic, homogeneous and isotropic materials. In that case, the modes I and II energy release rates were seen to depend upon the size of the virtual crack extension. Some attempts have been made to remove this dependence. Nevertheless, in most cases, the accuracy of both the energy release rates and stress intensity factors was not consistently good. In this study, the dependence of the energy release rates on the size of the virtual crack extension for interface cracks is analytically accounted for so that the stress intensity factors may be accurately obtained when fine finite element meshes are used, together with a virtual crack extension consisting of more than one element.

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