Effect of Contact between the Crack Faces on Crack Propagation

In mixed-mode crack propagation the crack faces frequently touch each other. The ensuing friction is expected to decrease the crack propagation speed. This effect is usually not taken into account, however, a realistic prediction of this effect may increase the calculated life and consequently increase the length of the inspection intervals. In this paper, penalty contact conditions are introduced in between the crack faces of the automatically generated mesh in a cyclic crack propagation. Special attention is given to the contact formulation and the area in which contact is defined. It is shown that the resulting crack propagation rate is significantly reduced by the introduction of friction provided that positive Mode-I is not significantly involved.