Issue 41

F.V. Antunes et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 41 (2017) 149-156; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.41.21 155 Figure 6 : (a) Effect of the node on da/dN-  CTOD p curves. (b) Prediction of the effect of an overload. (AA7050-T6; plane strain; NLC=2; F min =209 N, F max =419 N; F OL =627 N). C ONCLUSIONS he numerical predictions of  CTOD p are quite sensitive to the position of the measurement point relatively to the crack tip. At relatively short distances, there is a fast decrease of  CTOD p with departure from crack tip. At relatively large distances, there is a smooth but persistent decrease of predictions. Anyway, the measurement at quite remote positions is able to capture some plastic deformation, which is remarkable. Similar trends were obtained independently of load, material and stress state. The crack propagation,  a, is also a major parameter. The first predictions, i.e. without significant propagation, are relatively high, which can be explained by the low hardening of the material, and by the relatively low values of crack closure. The propagation induces a relatively fast decrease of  CTOD p which is linked to material hardening, followed by stabilization as the residual plastic wake is formed. After stabilization, there is a progressive increase of plastic CTOD with crack propagation, because there is a progressive increase of  K at the crack tip. A relatively low effect of finite mesh was found, which indicates that the predictions of  CTOD p are robust relatively to this parameter. Anyway, the increase of mesh size increases the distance of the first node behind crack tip and therefore reduces the predictions based on this node. The number of load cycles between crack increments affects the values of  CTOD p . However, the level of influence considerably depends on the material properties. For the 6016-T4 aluminum alloy, a strong effect was observed; while for the AA6082-T6, the influence was limited. Further work is needed to understand the effect of material properties on crack tip plastic deformation, and on crack closure. A KNOWLEDGEMENTS his research is sponsored by FEDER funds through the program COMPETE (under project T449508144- 00019113) and by national funds through FCT – Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project PTDC/EMS-PRO/1356/2014. One of the authors, P.A. Prates, was supported by a grant for scientific research also from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BPD/101465/2014). All supports are gratefully acknowledged. The authors would also like to thank the DD3IMP in-house code developer team for providing the code and all the support services. R EFERENCES [1] Antunes, F.V., Sousa, T., Branco, R., Correia, L. Effect of crack closure on non-linear crack tip parameters, International Journal of Fatigue, 71 (2015) 53–63. T T 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 400 800 1 200 da/dN [  m/cycle]  a[  m] OL_Node 1 OL_Node 12 CA_Node 1 CA_Node 12 da/dN= 6.3445 x  CTOD p da/dN= 1.0608  CTOD p 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 da/dN [  m/cycle]  CTOD p [  m] Node 12 Node 1