Numerical evaluation of crack tip opening displacements - 2D and 3D applications

The numerical tools to compute elastic-plastic crack tip loading parameters J and CTOD are well established for arbitrary geometry and loading situations also including temperature gradients and stable crack propagation. The evaluation of J is possible with only minimum requirements concerning mesh refinement and numerical effort. The determination of CTOD requires increased but not prohibitively large effort concerning mesh refinement and evaluation time. The correlation of J and CTOD postulated from continuum mechanics considerations could be verified numerically and experimentally. (IWM)