Effect of the thickness on the mixed mode crack front fields

Results pertaining to 3D investigations on the effect of the thickness on the stress fields at the crack front are presented. A 3D finite element analysis is performed using a modified single edgenotched tension specimen configuration, with an inclined crack to include mixed mode I-II. A technique to mesh the crack front (3D) with singular finite elements in ANSYS without using third party software is introduced and used in this study. The effect of the specimen thickness is explicitly investigated for six thicknesses ranging from 1 to 32 mm. In addition, three crack inclination angles, including pure Mode-I, are used to study the effect of mixed-mode I-II fracture. An attempt is made to correlate the extent of a particular stress state along the crack front to thickness. In addition, ozz /v (oxx + oyy) contours at the crack front are presented as a useful means to analyze the stress state.