Anisotropic Damage for the Characterization of the Onset of Macro-Crack Initiation in Metals

The onset of macro-crack initiation in metals is characterized using anisotropic damage. The formulation is for problems where the assumption of small elastic strains is valid (Figure 1). A coupled model of damage and plasticity is used to numerically simulate macro-crack initiation in a center cracked thin plate. The plate is subjected to in-plane uniformly distributed tensile load. A very fine finite element mesh is used to discretize the plate. The stresses and damage are shown in the form of contour lines around the crack tip of the plate.