Influence of specimen thickness on elastic-plastic deformation mechanics ahead of the fatigue crack front

Abstract eng:
Growing fatigue cracks with a straight front in Al-alloy sheets of three different thicknesses 0.5 mm, 1 mm and 2 mm are modelled using threedimensional finite element method. FEM model is considered as elastic-plastic with kinematic hardening, small strain formulation, and contact algorithm which reflects the crack closing and opening. Some interesting parameters of stress– plastic strain field ahead of the crack front (stress, plastic strain, strain energy density and plastic zone size) are studied. While the stress distribution under the free surface is not influenced by the specimen thickness, plastic strains are more intensive in the case of thinner specimens.

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