Understanding Crack Tip Plasticity – a Multi-Experimental Approach

Crack tip plasticity has been investigated using thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) and digital image correlation (DIC). The plastic zone size at the tip of a propagating fatigue crack was measured using both techniques. At longer crack lengths, the results compared well with Dugdale’s and Irwin’s models for crack tip yielding. The TSA methodology requires careful observation of the adiabatic assumption.