Study of Constraint Issues in Elasto-Plastic Fracture Analysis Using Experimental and Finite Element Simulation

In this investigation, the variation of J-integral considering Compact Tension (CT) specimen geometry varying a/W and σ using 2D and 3D elasto-plastic Finite Element (FE) analysis have been studied. Further, the investigation has been done to examine the relationship between the J and δ for varied a/W and σ. The plane stress and plane strain elasto-plastic FE analyses have been conducted on the CT specimen with a/W = 0.45–0.65 to extract the J and Crack-tip Opening Displacement (CTOD) values for mild steel. The comparative study of the variation of dn with a/W of mild steel with earlier results of IF steel is carried out. The study clearly infers the effect of yield stress on the variation of the magnitude of dn with reference to a/W ratio. The present analysis infers that while converting the magnitude of the CTOD to J one needs to carefully evaluate the value of dn depending on the material rather than considering it to be unity. Further, the study was extended to experimental and 3D FEA wherein J-integral and CTOD were estimated using the CT specimen. Experimental results reveal that the crack length, the specimen thickness, and the loading configuration have an effect on the fracture toughness measurements. The error analysis between the results obtained by 3D FEA and experimentation were conducted and found to be within limits.