Thermomechanics of slow stable crack growth: closing the loop between experiments and computational modeling

Most of the plastic work done ahead of a running crack is dissipated as heat. Even for slow moving cracks the resulting temperature field is of interest since it carries quantitative information about the energy consumed in crack growth and a qualitative description of the distributed damage to the material. In this study, the temperature field ahead of a stable, Mode I, growing crack in a ductile material is imaged using an infrared camera. Thermal images are analyzed to compute energy flux to the crack. Coupled temperature–displacement FEA are performed to model these experiments and a good match with experiments is obtained.