Influence of damage in the vicinity of a macrocrack tip

The damage performance in the vicinity of a crack tip is examined by looking at the damage distribution and the size of damage zones just ahead of a macrocrack. The effects of damage caused by fracture path local deflections, a reduction in the modulus of elasticity and a release of the residual stresses on the stress intensity factor during microcracking are studied. It is found that all these three factors produce shielding effects on the stress intensity factor under Mode I loading. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.