Numerical Studies of End Effect on Crack Propagation Behavior of Brittle Specimen Containing Pre-Existing Crack under Uniaxial Compression

In this paper, a Material Failure Process Analysis code (MFPA2D) was employed to investigate the interaction of end effect zone of specimen with the wing crack propagation inside the brittle specimen containing pre-existing flaws under uniaxial compression comparing with the experimental results. The numerical results show that the shorter the distance between the pre-existing flaw and the specimen's end , the slower the crack propagation process and the shorter wing propagation length is , and vice versa. In addition, the end effect zone was also influenced by the wing crack propagation.