Output details
15 - General Engineering
University of Plymouth
A quantitative evaluation of fatigue crack shielding forces using photoelasticity
This paper presents a full-field 3D experimental verification using photoelasticity for a model which characterises the driving force on cracks and the resistance arising from crack shielding processes in a using a new set of stress intensity factors. This novel view of crack retarding and driving forces offers potentially powerful additional insights into long-standing controversies associated with fatigue crack growth and the role of the plastic enclave which surrounds the crack. It is the result on an interdisciplinary collaboration between mathematics, experimental mechanics and fracture mechanics and the concepts are being incorporated by other workers in Europe.