Tae Hyun Baek*, Lei Chen and Dong Pyo Hong
The Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, vol. 25, no. 10, pp.2535-2543, 2011

Abstract : For isotropic material structure, the stress in the vicinity of crack tip is generally much higher than the stress far away from it. This phenomenon usually leads to stress concentration and fracture of structure. Previous researches and studies show that the stress intensity factor is one of most important parameter for crack growth and propagation. This paper provides a convenient numerical method, which is called hybrid photoelasticity method, to accurately determine the stress field distribution in the vicinity of crack tip and mixed-mode stress intensity factors. The model was simulated by finite element method and isochromatic data along straight lines far away from the crack tip were calculated. By using the isochromatic data obtained from finite element method and a conformal mapping procedure, stress components and photoelastic fringes in the hybrid region were calculated. To easily compare calculated photoelastic fringes with experiment results, the fringe patterns were reconstructed, doubled and sharpened. Good agreement shows that the method presented in this paper is reliable and convenient. This method can then directly be applied to obtain mixed mode stress intensity factors from the experimentally measured isochromatic data along the straight lines.

Keyword : Photoelasticity; Polariscope; Stress intensity factor; Isochromatics; Isoclinics; Inclined crack; Mixed-mode stress intensity factor; Photoelastic fringe doubling; Fringe sharpening