Peridynamic modelling of Hertzian indentation fracture

Abstract Hertzian indentation technique is a method that is widely used in the investigation of the fracture toughness and the Young’s modulus of a brittle material. Thus, it has been studied in various research studies during the past century. The problem describes axisymmetric fracture behaviour of a flaw-free brittle solid under compression due to the impact of a stiff indenter. During the fracture process, the evolution of the crack is divided into two stages. Initially, a ring crack forms spontaneously outside the contact region under a critical load. Then, it propagates for a small distance perpendicular to the free surface of the brittle solid. With the increase in load applied on the indenter, a cone-shaped crack occurs at the bottom of the ring flaw and it grows at a certain angle. Hence, in this study a new numerical technique, peridynamics, is utilised to analyse the historical complex fracture problem. To reduce the computational time, the problem is simplified by considering an axisymmetric model. The effect of Poisson’s ratio on the orientation and size of the cone-shaped crack are investigated.