Original article

Proc IMechE Part L:

J Materials: Design and Applications
Computation of dynamic stress intensity 0(0) 1–12
! IMechE 2017
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functionally graded solids DOI: 10.1177/1464420717711467

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Safa Peyman1, Rahmatollah Ghajar2 and Saeed Irani1

Abstract
Dynamic stress intensity factors are important parameters in the dynamic fracture behavior of a cracked body. In this
paper, an interaction integral method is utilized to compute the mixed-mode dynamic stress intensity factors of three-
dimensional functionally graded material solids. Using a proper definition of actual and auxiliary fields, a new formulation
and application of the interaction integral is proposed, which is independent of the derivatives of the material properties.
ABAQUS finite element package is applied to analyze the functionally graded material cracked bodies. Accordingly, a user
material subroutine is written for implementing the continuous variation of the material properties. Temperature was
used as an additional variable to consider the variation of density. A research code is developed to compute the
interaction integral. This code is then validated by solving some homogeneous and functionally graded material problems.
Furthermore, the effect of the material properties on the dynamic stress intensity factors of FGM bodies with elliptical
crack is investigated by taking the sigmoidal model into account. Several important fracture behavior of functionally
graded material cracked bodies under dynamic loadings for different material property profiles are explored in detail.

Keywords
Dynamic stress intensity factors, interaction integral method, functionally graded materials, finite element method,
elliptical crack, mixed mode

Date received: 22 January 2017; accepted: 28 April 2017

Introduction the design of components made of FGMs, and

The use of functionally graded materials (FGMs) has
been increased recently in a variety of engineering
structures. FGMs are advanced composite materials
that have gradual variation in the material properties.
This class of materials has been introduced to remove
singular stresses, relax residual stresses, and enhance
the bonding strength. Thus, fracture analysis of
FGMs is an important topic in the optimization and
design of many engineering applications. FGMs can
be used in a wide range of engineering structures and
components such as thermal barrier coatings, wear-
resistant coatings, electronic devices, etc. Due to the
increasing use of FGMs in many fields of engineering,
investigating the mechanical behavior of these mater-
ials is very essential. The fracture properties of FGMs
play a significant role in their reliability and mechan-
ical integrity. Crack failure is one of the most domin-
ant failure mechanisms in the materials. Experimental
and numerical researches show that fracture is a key
failure mode of FGMs.1 The knowledge of crack
growth and propagation in FGMs is necessary for
improving their fracture resistance.
A large number of studies have so far been per-
formed to predict the behavior of FGM cracked
bodies. Most of these works focus on two-dimen-
sional (2D) fracture behaviors of FGMs. In the 3D
field, Walters et al.2 obtained the mixed-mode stress
intensity factors (SIFs) of functionally graded solids
with semi-elliptical cracks using interaction integral
method. Kheirikhah and Khalili3 studied the influence
of the discontinuity of the mechanical properties of
FGMs on the SIFs of semi-elliptical cracks through
a 3D FEM. Shaghaghi et al.4 obtained the mixed
1
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, K.N. Toosi University, Tehran, Iran
2
Mechanical Properties Research Lab (MPRL), Faculty of Mechanical
Engineering, K.N. Toosi University, Tehran, Iran
Corresponding author:
Rahmatollah Ghajar, Mechanical Properties Research Lab (MPRL),
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, K.N. Toosi University, No. 17, Pardis
St., Mollasadra Ave., Vanak Square, Tehran 19991-4334, Iran.
Email: ghajar@kntu.ac.ir
2 Proc IMechE Part L: J Materials: Design and Applications 0(0)

mode SIFs of FGMs with curved nonplanar crack. variation of the material properties in the numerical
Using the interaction integral method, Peyman and analyses. The variation of density for FGMs cannot
Ghajar5 investigated the effect of auxiliary fields and be modeled in the UMAT subroutine. Therefore, dens-
also the contour distance from the crack tips on ity is defined as a function of an additional variable i.e.
accuracy of SIFs of FGMs. Their results confirmed temperature. On the other hand, the ABAQUS is
that the solutions using the incompatibility formula- unable to compute the SIFs of FGMs; therefore, a
tion method are superior to those obtained by imple- MATLAB17 code has been written, which uses real
menting nonequilibrium and constant constitutive and auxiliary fields of displacement, strain, and stress
tensor. All of the mentioned investigations studied to compute the interaction integral, and SIFs.
the behavior of FGMs under static loadings.
Dynamic stress intensity factors (DSIFs) are used Incompatibility formulations of the
to determine the stress state of a cracked body under
FGM auxiliary fields
dynamic loading. Thus, an accurate evaluation of
DSIFs is crucial in the fracture mechanics. Several Actual and auxiliary fields of displacement, strain,
methods have been developed and applied to evaluate and stress are used to compute the interaction inte-
DSIFs for various 3D homogeneous material prob- gral. Actual fields are obtained by means of numerical
lems as discussed below. Chen6 employed finite differ- methods (e.g. FEM), while auxiliary fields are con-
ence method (FDM) to compute the DSIFs of plates structed on the basis of known fields such as
with a central crack. Aoki et al.7 utilized the relation- Williams’ solution.18 Delale and Erdogan19 showed
ship between DSIFs and displacement to obtain mode that for nonhomogeneous materials, the singularity
I and mode II DSIFs. Wen et al.8 used boundary of stress in the crack tip is similar to that in the homo-
element method (BEM) to compute DSIFs of solids geneous materials. Eischen20 studied the static fields
with planar elliptical cracks. Enderlin et al.,9 based on of crack tip for nonhomogeneous materials, using
FEM, used dynamic J-integral, virtual crack closure Williams’ solution,18 and concluded that the first
and displacement techniques to compute DSIFs. Guo term of stress singularity and the term associated
and Nairn10 computed DSIFs using material point with displacement around the crack are similar to
method. Fedelinski et al.11 used J-integral to obtain those of homogeneous materials. Parameswaran and
DSIFs by means of BEM. Shukla21 suggested that the stress fields of nonhomo-
For 2D non-homogeneous materials, Rousseau geneous materials under dynamic loading are similar
and Tippur12 obtained the DSIFs of FGMs with to those of homogeneous materials subjected to quasi-
both experimental and numerical methods. Song static loading. Thus, in the present work, the asymp-
and Paulino13 implemented interaction integral totic fields of Williams’ solution18 are employed as the
method to obtain the DSIFs of FGMs. Ekhlakov auxiliary fields for nonhomogeneous materials to for-
et al.14 employed BEM to investigate the transient mulate the dynamic interaction integral.
thermoelastic behavior of 2D functionally graded
cracked bodies subjected to thermal shock. Shariati Kaux Kaux Kaux
ijaux ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
I
ffi fIij ðÞ þ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
II
ffi fII III III
ij ðÞ þ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi fij ð Þ ð1Þ
and Rokhi15 implemented the extended finite element 2r 2r 2r
method (XFEM) to investigate the effect of thermal
rffiffiffiffiffiffi rffiffiffiffiffiffi
shocks on a 2D FGMs cracked body. Kaux r I Kaux r II
Reviewing the literature it is concluded that DSIFs uaux
j ¼ I
gj ð, Þ þ II
g ð, Þ
2 2 2 2 j
of 3D FGM bodies have been rarely studied by rffiffiffiffiffiffi ð2Þ
Kaux r III
researchers. Moreover, investigating the effects of þ III g ð, Þ
2 2 j
material property gradient on DSIFs of FGMs using
3D models can be helpful in understanding the behav- 1  aux 
ior of cracked FGM bodies. In this study, the dynamic "aux
ij ¼ ui,j þ uaux
j,i ð3Þ
2
interaction integral is extended to include material gra-
dient and dynamic effects to obtain the DSIFs of 3D In all the above equations, uaux aux aux
i , ij , and "ij , are
FGM cracked bodies. Then, with a reasonable defin- the auxiliary fields of displacement, stress, and strain,
ition of the alternative domains of displacement, stress, respectively; and, Kaux aux aux
I , KII , and KIII are auxiliary
and strain, the interaction integral is obtained, which is SIFs, related to the first, second, and third modes of
independent of the derivatives of the material proper- the failure, respectively; r and  are polar coordinates
ties. Some examples are presented in order to validate of a point for which the auxiliary fields are obtained,
the method. This is then followed by studying the measured from a point on the crack front;  and  are
behavior of FGMs under dynamic loading. The results shear modulus and Poisson’s ratio of the point in the
are extracted by considering the variations of material crack front, respectively, where the SIFs are to be com-
properties in the form of a sigmoidal function. puted; fij ðÞ and gij ðÞ are standard angular functions of
In this study, ABAQUS finite element package16 is the crack in homogeneous and elastic materials.18
used for analyzing the considered problems. A UMAT When the finite domain is selected to compute the
subroutine is written in order to apply the continuous interaction integral for nonhomogeneous materials,
Peyman et al. 3

due to the difference between material properties at

and away from the crack tip, these auxiliary fields are
not satisfactory except near the crack tip. Therefore,
not all auxiliary fields can be obtained on the basis of
the crack tip properties, because, due to nonhomo-
geneity, they are valid at the crack tip location but
not valid at other points. In other words, the differ-
ences between the material properties at and away
from the crack tip affect on the real and auxiliary
stress, strain and displacement fields. Moreover, the
variation of material properties in a FGM results in
the interaction integral for this material to be different
from that of a homogeneous material. Due to the dif-
ference between material properties at the crack tip
and away from the tip, three different formulations,
namely nonequilibrium, incompatibility, and constant
Figure 1. Volume domain of the interaction integral for
constitutive tensor, were derived. evaluating the SIFs of the point b in the crack front.
In this study, incompatibility formulation is used in
conjunction with the FEM to compute DSIFs for the
3D FGM cracked bodies under dynamic loading. In where, ui and ij are the actual fields of displacement
this formulation, the auxiliary displacements, uauxi , and and stress, respectively, and ij is the Kronecker delta.
stresses, ijaux , are computed directly from the Williams’ W and L represent the amount of strain and kine-
formulation and with respect to the material properties matic energy and the following relation is valid for
of the crack tip. Then, auxiliary fields of the strain, "aux
ij , linear elastic materials
are obtained from the stress–strain relation on the
basis of the equations representing the behavior of 1 1
W ¼ ij "ij , L ¼ u_ i u_ i ð6Þ
nonhomogeneous materials, as follows 2 2
"aux aux
ij ¼ Sijkl ðxÞij ð4Þ where , u_ i , and "ij are the actual fields of density,
where, Sijkl ðxÞ is the compliance tensor of nonhomo- velocity, and strain at the any point of volume con-
geneous materials, which varies spatially. In this for- tour, respectively. Furthermore, the term q is the
mulation, the equilibrium equations ijaux ¼ 0 are weight function, which its value on the contour sur-
fulfilled. However, the relations between strain and face can be obtained from equation (7)2 as follows
displacement fields are not satisfied, i.e. "aux ij 6¼ 
ðuaux
i,j þ u aux
j,i Þ=2. This is because the auxiliary fields of lk , on Si
qk ¼ ð7Þ
displacement are obtained on the basis of the crack tip 0, on S0 , A1 , A2
properties, while the auxiliary fields of strain are com-
puted by the compliance tensor as expressed in equa-
tion (4). This condition will lead to an incompatibility The value of q in the middle points of the selected
term in the formulation. volume, like the Gaussian nodes, is obtained from the
following equation
Incompatibility formulation of
X

¼j
interaction integral method qk ¼ N
q
k ð8Þ

¼1
The interaction integral is one of the most widely used
methods to compute the SIFs of cracked solids.
Interaction integral method is constructed on the Substituting equation (6) in equation (5), and differ-
basis of J-integral method. Accordingly, the amount entiating it, the J-integral for nonhomogeneous
of integral J, corresponding to the point b, which is materials takes the form of
located on the crack front in Figure 1, can be com- Z 
puted from equation (5) using the volume contour 1
J¼ ij ui,1  ðik "ik þ u_ i u_ i Þ1j q,j dV
between the surfaces, A1 , A2 , Si , and So , and the V 2
crack surfaces, namely Cþ and C 22 Z
 
Z þ ij,j ui,1 þ ij ui,1j qdV
  V
J¼ ij ui,1  ðW þ LÞ1j q,j dV Z ð9Þ
1  
V
Z ð5Þ  ij,1 "ij þ ij "ij,1 qdV
  2 V
þ ij ui,1  ðW þ LÞ1j ,j qdV Z
1  
V  ,1 u_ i u_ i þ 2 u_ i u_ i,1 qdV
2 V
4 Proc IMechE Part L: J Materials: Design and Applications 0(0)

Equation (9) is the general form of J-integral for Z  

FGMs. On the basis of this relation, integral relation þ ij,j uaux aux
i,1 þ ij,j ui,1 qdV
for auxiliary fields is derived in the form of the ZV  
following þ ij uaux
i,1j þ  aux
ij u i,1j qdV
V
Z  Z
1 aux aux 1  aux 
Jaux ¼ ijaux uaux
i,1   " 1j q,j dV  ij "ij,1 þ ijaux "ij,1 qdV
V 2 ik ik 2 V
Z
Z
1  aux aux  1  
 u_ u_ 1j q,j dV  ij,1 "aux aux
ij þ ij,1 "ij qdV ð13Þ
2 V i i 2 V
Z  
þ aux aux
ij,j ui,1 þ ijaux uaux
i,1j qdV ð10Þ In the following, using equation (13), incompatibil-
V
Z ity formulation of interaction integral will be derived.
1  aux aux 
In this formulation of interaction integral, the auxil-
 ij,1 "ij þ ijaux "auxij,1 qdV
2 V iary fields of section ‘‘Incompatibility formulations of
Z   the FGM auxiliary fields’’ are used. These auxiliary
1
 ,1 u_ aux
i _
u aux
i þ 2 u_ aux aux
i u_ i,1 qdV fields satisfy the equilibrium equations (i.e. ij,j aux
¼ 0),
2 V
and ij,j ¼ u€ i and ui,1j ¼ "ij,1 are valid for real fields.
Now, using the application of the real fields ui , ij , Thus, using the stress–strain and strain–displacement
and "ij and the auxiliary fields uaux aux aux
i , ij , and "ij the relations, equation (13) can be rewritten in the form of
Js integral can be shown in the form of incompatibility interaction integral as:
Z   Z Z
s
J ¼ ij þ ijaux Þðui,1 þ uaux
i,1 q,j dV M¼ ðijaux ui,1 þ ij uaux
i,1 Þq,j dV  aux
ik "ik 1j q,j dV
V V V
Z Z h  i
1 aux
 ðik þ ik Þð"ik þ "aux
ik Þ1j q,j dV þ u€ i uaux
i,1 þ ij u aux
i,1j  " aux
ij,1 qdV
2 V V
Z Z
1 aux

 ðik þ ik Þð"ik þ "aux
ik Þ1j q,j dV  Cijkl,1 ðxÞ"aux
kl "ij qdV ð14Þ
2 V V
Z
1
 ðu_ i þ u_ aux _ i þ u_ aux
i Þðu i Þ1j q,j dV In equation (14), the term Cijkl,1 ðxÞ"aux
2 V kl "ij shows
Z that the computation of M needs derivation of mater-
aux
þ ðij,j þ ij,j Þðui,1 þ uaux
i,1 ÞqdV ial properties. Considering that the properties
V of FGMs are function of coordinates, this deriv-
Z ð11Þ
þ ðij þ ijaux Þðui,1j þ uaux ation complicates the evaluation of M. But
i,1j ÞqdV
V this term can be expressed in a form without deriva-
Z tives of material properties. Considering the sym-
1 aux
 ðij,1 þ ij,1 Þð"ij þ "aux
ij ÞqdV metry of the constitutive matrix, this term is
2 V
Z rewritten in the form of
1
 ðij þ ijaux Þð"ij,1 þ "aux
ij,1 ÞqdV
2 Cijkl,1 ðxÞ"aux aux
Z
V kl "ij ¼ Cklij,1 ðxÞ"ij "kl ð15Þ
1   
 ,1 u_ i þ u_ aux
i u_ i þ u_ aux
i qdV
2 V By rewriting equation (15), equation (16) is obtained
Z as follows
 ðu_ i þ u_ aux
i Þðu _ i,1 þ u_ aux
i,1 ÞqdV
V ðCklij ðxÞ"ij Þ,1 ¼ Cklij,1 ðxÞ"ij þ Cklij ðxÞ"ij,1 ð16Þ

Equation (11) can be written in the form of So the required expression can be rearranged as
follows
Js ¼ J þ Jaux þ M ð12Þ
Cijkl,1 ðxÞ"aux aux aux
kl "ij ¼ ðCklij ðxÞ"ij Þ,1 "kl  Cijkl ðxÞ"kl "ij,1
aux
within which the J and J are obtained using equa- ð17Þ
tions (9) and (10), knowing that the auxiliary velocity
is zero the interaction integral can be evaluated as This equation can be rewritten in the form of
Z  equation (18)

M¼ ijaux ui,1 þ ij uaux
i,1 q,j dV
V Cijkl,1 ðxÞ"aux aux aux
kl "ij ¼ kl,1 "kl  ij "ij,1 ð18Þ
Z
1
 ðik "aux aux
ik þ ik "ik Þ1j q,j dV Substituting equation (18) in equation (14), the inter-
2 V
action integral can be evaluated while derivatives of
Peyman et al.
material properties are not required
Z Z
M¼ ðijaux ui,1 þ ij uaux
i,1 Þq ,j dV  aux
ik
V V
Z h  i
þ u€ i uaux aux aux
i,1 þ ij ui,1j  "ij,1 qdV
ZV   has the ability to utilize the gradient of material prop-
 kl,1 "aux aux
kl þ ij "ij,1 qdV
V
Energy release rate and SIFs
Shih et al.23 showed that the energy release rate could
be obtained from the following equation
 ¼R M is set to zero. Hence, using a predefined temperature
M ð20Þ
LC qðsÞds
where q(s) is a continuous function over the crack
front between the points a and c.2 The relation
between the SIFs and the rate of energy release is
given by the following equation2
2  
 ¼ 2ð1 Þ KI Kaux þ KII Kaux þ 2ð1þÞ KIII Kaux
M mentioned predefined temperature field. Thus,
E I II E III
where E and v are the elastic modulus and Poisson’s
ratio of the material, respectively; KI , KII , and KIII are
mode I, mode II, and mode III SIFs, respectively; and
Kaux aux aux
I , KII , and KIII are mode I, mode II, and mode
III auxiliary SIFs, respectively.
In order to compute KI , the amount of Kaux I is con-
sidered as unity, and other auxiliary SIFs are set to
zero. Similar to the real fields, auxiliary fields are
assumed as functions of KI, KII, and KIII. With
regard to the fact that these fields are hypothetical,
it is possible to assume one of the SIFs to be unity,
and the others to be zero. Therefore, by calculating
the interaction integral, the SIFs of the first failure
mode will be obtained. Other SIFs can be evaluated
by applying a similar process. The special character-
istic of the interaction integral method is that using
this method KI and KII factors can be obtained
independently.
Finite element analysis on the basis of
graded elements
Both homogeneous and graded elements can be used
for considering the variations of material properties in
FGMs. Graded elements incorporate the material
property gradient at the size scale of the element,
while the properties of homogeneous elements are
adjusted with the properties of the center of functional
parts. Furthermore, graded elements, in comparison
with the homogeneous ones, approximate the material
property gradient more accurately. Therefore, they
5
are preferred to be utilized in finite element analysis
of FGMs. When numerical solution is obtained using
a finite element software, the software should be able
"ik 1j q,j dV
to use graded elements, or this ability has to be imple-
mented by writing appropriate codes in the form of
subroutines. The ABAQUS16 finite element software
ð19Þ erties of FGMs through UMAT subroutine. The sub-
routine should be written in such a way that the
material properties at Gaussian points can be
obtained, considering the material property gradient.
The variation of density for FGMs cannot be mod-
eled in the UMAT subroutine. Therefore, density is
defined as a function of an additional variable i.e.
temperature, and the coefficient of thermal expansion
field, the value of temperature in each node is assumed
equal to the coordinate of the node that corresponds
to the direction of the variation of density. After
determining the predefined temperature field, the
density is defined as a function of this field. In other
words, the density in each node is related to the tem-
perature of that node, which is defined by the afore-
because the applied method for the analysis is not a
thermal stress analysis, the existence of initial tem-
ð21Þ
perature in the model does not affect the results.
Rousseau and Tippur24 used a similar technique to
define the spatial variations of elastic modulus and
density as functions of temperature.
The most important step in the FEM modeling is
mesh generation. To include the singularity of the
crack tip in the contour integral estimation, first con-
tour of the crack tip is meshed by 15 node quadratic
triangular prism elements (C3D15), while the other
regions are meshed by 20-node quadratic brick elem-
ents (C3D20R). Considering the stress singularity in
the crack zone, size of elements around the crack is
chosen small enough to improve the convergence of
the solution. Peyman and Ghajar5 investigated the
effects of auxiliary fields, and the dependence of the
interaction integral on the distance between the con-
tour and the crack tip. They indicated that because of
the variation of FGM properties near the crack tip,
the distance between the contour and the crack tip
affects on the value of interaction integral and SIFs.
Furthermore, in dynamic problems, the distance
between the contour and the crack tip has a consid-
erable effect on the dynamic fracture parameters.
Thus, in this study, the convergence of results for dif-
ferent contours was studied, and the best distance
from the crack tip was selected for the contour to
calculate the contour integral and SIFs. In fact, the
dependency of the results on the distance between the
contour and the crack tip is a disadvantage for
the proposed method.
The ABAQUS16 software is unable to compute the
SIFs of FGMs. The reason for this issue is that
ABAQUS can only compute the SIFs for
6 Proc IMechE Part L: J Materials: Design and Applications 0(0)

homogeneous materials. As mentioned previously, in

this study, a UMAT subroutine was used to model
FGMs. Therefore, a MATLAB17 code was written,
which uses real and auxiliary fields of displacement,
strain, and stress to compute the interaction integral,
and SIFs.
Semi-circular crack in a FGM rectangular bar
Figure 5 illustrates a rectangular bar containing a
semi-circular surface crack. The values of 2b1 , 2b2 ,
2b3 , and 2a are 10, 100, 100, and 10 mm, respectively.
The static load of t is applied on the end surfaces of

Validation
In this section, problems with elliptical and semi-cir-
cular surface cracks will be solved to assess the accur-
acy and reliability of the utilized methods.

Elliptical crack in a homogenous rectangular bar

A rectangular bar containing a central elliptical crack
is considered as shown in Figure 2. The values of b1 ,
b2 , b3 , a1 , and a2 are 45, 75, 30, 17.5, and 10 mm,
respectively. The dynamic load of 0 HðtÞ is applied
on the end surfaces of the bar. HðtÞ is Heaviside func-
tion and the material properties are E ¼ 187 GPa,
¼ 7900 kg=m3 , and v ¼ 0.216.
It should be noted that during the numerical simu-
lation, the whole bar is modeled and load is applied to
its upper and lower surfaces along the X2 axis.
Figure 3 shows the mesh refinement in the crack
region.
Figure 4 compares the results of the interaction
integral method with those reported by Wen et al.,8
and Enderlin et al.,9 where KID is the DSIF associated
with the first mode of dynamic failure at the endpof theffi
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
minor axis of the elliptical crack, and K0 ¼ 20 a1 =.
It can be seen that the method used in the present
work is in good agreement with those used by the
other researchers. Consequently, proper accuracy of
the method can be inferred from this figure.

Figure 3. Mesh refinement along the crack front.

Figure 4. Comparison between the time histories of KID =K0

obtained in the present study and those reported by the other
Figure 2. Rectangular bar containing an elliptical crack. researchers.
Peyman et al.
Figure 5. Rectangular bar containing a semi-circular crack.
Figure 6. Parametric angle , on an semi-circular crack front.
the bar. The form of variations of Young’s modulus is
considered as follows
EðX1 Þ ¼ E1 eX1
The nonhomogeneity parameter, , is defined by the
following equation
 Walters et al.2 Therefore, the accuracy of the pre-
1 E2
 ¼ log
W E1
where E1 and E2 are the Young’s modulus of material
over the planes at X1 ¼ 0 and X1 ¼ 2b1 , respectively.
The Poisson’s ratio is assumed constant and equal
to 0.3.
Figure 6 shows the parametric angle , on an semi-
circular crack front. Figures 7 and 8 compare the
variations of KID =K0 versus 2= computed with the
interaction integral described by equation (20) and
that reported by Walters et al.,2 for the values
of nonhomogeneity parameters corresponding to
7
Figure 7. Variations of KI =K0 versus 2= for the FGM
rectangular bar of Figure 5, obtained in the present study and
that of Walters et al.2 (E2/E1 ¼ 0.2).
Figure 8. Variations of KI =K0 versus 2= for the FGM
rectangular bar of Figure 5, obtained in the present study and
that of Walters et al.2 (E2 =E1 ¼ 5).
ð22Þ
E2 =E1 ¼p0:2 and 5, ffi respectively. In these figures,
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
K0 ¼ 0 a=2:464. It can be seen that the present
results are in good agreement with those reported by
sented method for estimating the static and dynamic
ð23Þ
SIFs in the both homogeneous and FGM cracked
bodies can be concluded.
Effect of material property variations
on DSIFs
In this section, DSIFs associated with mixed mode of
failure are investigated for a FGM bar with an ellip-
tical crack (Figure 2). The results are obtained con-
sidering the variations of material properties in the
form of a sigmoidal function. Silicon carbide–alumi-
num and silicon carbide–steel, which consist of two
8 Proc IMechE Part L: J Materials: Design and Applications 0(0)

Table 1. Properties of the materials utilized in the silicon

carbide–aluminum and silicon carbide–steel FGMs.

Material property Silicon carbide Aluminum Steel

Density (kg/m3) 3160 2780 7830

Elastic modulus (GPa) 423 73.1 199
Poisson’s ratio 0.16 0.31 0.29

Figure 10. Variations of the elastic modulus of FGM con-

sidering sigmoidal function with different values of p.

Figure 9. Schematic of FGM plate.

phases: metal and ceramic, are considered. Properties

of these materials are listed in Table 1.

Sigmoidal model
When a functionally graded material, whose proper-
ties vary as an exponential function, is applied to a
multilayer composite, stress concentrations occur in
the region where the material is continuous; however,
its properties change rapidly. Chi and Chung25
Figure 11. Time history of KID =K0 for the minor axis of the
defined variations in the material properties by using elliptical crack of the aluminum bar.
two exponential functions (i.e. sigmoidal model), such
that the distribution of stresses is ensured between all
boundaries, as follows The range of variations for p is typically between 0.1
and 10. Figure 10 indicates the variations of elastic
MðX2 Þ ¼ M1 g1 ðX2 Þ þ M2 ð1  g1 ðX2 ÞÞ  0:5h4X2 40 modulus assuming the values of 1/3, 1, and 3 for p in
MðX2 Þ ¼ M1 g2 ðX2 Þ þ M2 ð1  g2 ðX2 ÞÞ 04X2 40:5h the sigmoidal function, used in the numerical
analyses.
ð24Þ

where MðX2 Þ is one of the material properties (i.e. elastic

Silicon carbide–aluminum FGM bar
modulus, Poisson’s ratio, or density) in each point; and In this section, the DSIFs of a rectangular bar with an
M1 and M2 are the material properties in the X2 ¼ h=2 elliptical crack similar to that shown in Figure 2 are
and X2 ¼ h=2 of the FGM plate (with thickness of h) obtained, considering the variations of elastic modu-
shown in Figure 9, respectively. The functions g1 ðX2 Þ lus, Poisson’s ratio, and density of the material in the
and g2 ðX2 Þ are defined by equation (25) as form of equation (24) along the X2 axis. Figures 11
 and 12 show the time histories of the normalized
0:5 h  X2 p DSIF for the minor axis of the elliptical crack of the
g1 ðX2 Þ ¼ 1  0:5 0:5 h4X2 40
0:5 h homogeneous aluminum and silicon carbide bars,
 p respectively. The reason for difference between the
0:5 h þ X2
g2 ðX2 Þ ¼ 0:5 04X2 40:5 h time windows for the graphs presented in these figures
0:5 h
is that the fundamental period of silicon carbide and
ð25Þ aluminum bars are different. Therefore, in each figure
Peyman et al.
Figure 12. Time history of KID =K0 for the minor axis of the
elliptical crack of the silicon carbide bar.
Figure 13. Time history of KID =K0 in the point on the minor
axis of silicon carbide–aluminum FGM bar.
the time window was considered to illustrate one peak
of DSIF. In other words, the intention of presenting
these figures is to compare the peaks of DSIFs.
In Figures 13 and 14, the time histories of modes I
and II DSIFs of silicon carbide–aluminum FGM bar
are presented, respectively. It can be seen that in the
case of p ¼ 1/3, the first mode of fracture is dominat-
ing, and the second mode DSIF for this case is very
lower than the other second mode DSIFs. This phe-
nomenon can be interpreted by taking Figure 10 into
account. In fact, for the case of p ¼ 1/3, in this figure,
one can observe that the amounts of elasticity modu-
lus, Poisson’s ratio and density are approaching to the
average of metal and ceramic material properties. In
other words, the behavior of FGM bar is similar to a
homogeneous one. Thus, a value of p ¼ 1/3 can be
useful when a FGM with material properties similar
to the average of properties of two homogeneous
materials is required. On the other hand, as can be
seen in Figure 10, in the cases of p ¼ 1 and 3, gradients
of elasticity modulus, Poisson’s ratio and density are
steep in the middle section of the bar. These rapid
9
Figure 14. Time history of KIID =K0 in the point on the minor
axis of silicon carbide–aluminum FGM bar.
variations in material properties in the crack zone
result in considerable values for mode II DSIFs.
In Figure 13, it can also be seen that when the
gradients of material properties in the crack zone
are steep (i.e. when p ¼ 3), KID is lower than those
corresponding to p ¼ 1 and 1/3. Moreover, when
p ¼ 3, the properties of FGM bar in each side of the
crack surface, in a considerable portion of the dis-
tance between the bar end and the crack surface, are
similar to those of one of the base materials. This
issue has a significant effect on reducing the stress
concentration in the contact surface between a
FGM and a homogeneous material, when the FGM
is used as a cover on the homogeneous material or as
a transition layer between two homogeneous mater-
ials. In the case of p ¼ 1, the variations of material
properties is linear. The mentioned observations are
important in design of FGM structures, which may
have unwanted cracks, according to their conditions.
As it is obvious in Figures 11 to 14, periods of the
aluminum, silicon carbide, and FGM silicon carbide–
aluminum bars are different. Moreover, the period of
the FGM bar is between the periods of homogeneous
ceramic (silicon carbide) and metallic (aluminum)
bars. Because using FGMs as a cover of homoge-
neous materials are common, designing the FGMs
in such a way to have a period near to that of the
base material can reduce the stress concentration in
the contact surface. It should be mentioned that the
period of the FGM bar has a direct relationship with
the power parameter p. In Figures 15 and 16, the time
histories of the DSIFs of FGM bar for all nodes along
the crack front for the case of p ¼ 3 are presented. The
parametric angle  defines the crack front location as
described in Figure 17. It can be seen that the max-
imum of DSIFs for the both modes of fracture occur
in the point on the minor axis of elliptical crack front.
Silicon carbide–steel FGM bar
As a second example, a silicon carbide–steel rectangu-
lar bar containing a central elliptical crack, shown in
10
Figure 15. Time histories of KID =K0 for all points along the
crack front for the silicon carbide–aluminum FGM bar (p ¼ 3).
Figure 16. Time histories of KIID =K0 for all points along the
crack front for the silicon carbide–aluminum FGM bar (p ¼ 3).
Figure 17. Description of parametric angle , on an elliptical
crack front where a=c41.
Figure 2, is considered. The time histories of mode I
and II DSIFs of this bar for different p values are
plotted in Figures 18 and 19, respectively. It can be
seen that in the case of p ¼ 1/3 for this material, the
first mode of fracture is dominating and the second
mode DSIF is the lowest one compared with those
corresponding to the other values of p. The important
Proc IMechE Part L: J Materials: Design and Applications 0(0)
Figure 18. Time history of KID =K0 in the point on the minor
axis of silicon carbide–steel FGM bar.
Figure 19. Time history of KIID =K0 in the point on the minor
axis of silicon carbide–steel FGM bar.
Figure 20. Time history of KID =K0 in the point on the ellip-
tical crack front of silicon carbide–steel FGM bar for the case of
p ¼ 3.
point in this example is that the maximum values of
modes I and II DSIFs for the case of p ¼ 1 are more
than those corresponding to p ¼ 3. This shows the
effect of density on the DSIFs of FGMs. It is worth
Peyman et al.
Figure 21. Time history of KIID =K0 in the point on the ellip-
tical crack front of silicon carbide–steel FGM bar for the case of
p ¼ 3.
mentioning that in the case of silicon carbide–alumi-
num FGMs, the density of ceramic and metallic ingre-
dients are approximately equal. But the density of
steel is greater than that of silicon carbide. In
Figures 20 and 21, the time histories of modes I and
II DSIFs of the FGM bar (considering p ¼ 3) for all
points along the elliptical crack front are shown,
respectively. As anticipated, the maximum DSIFs
occur in the point on the minor axis of the elliptical
crack front.
Conclusions
In this study, a new formulation and application of
the interaction integral is proposed, which is inde-
pendent of the derivatives of the material properties.
The verification of the presented interaction integral
method is carried out by solving homogeneous and
FGM problems under static and dynamic loadings.
The comparisons show that the proposed method
computes DSIFs with high accuracy and efficiency.
Then, using this method in conjunction with FEM,
the effects of the gradient of material properties on
the DSIFs of FGMs are investigated through solving
several problems. The highlighted results of this
research are mentioned in the following:
(1) The dynamic interaction integral based on the
incompatibility formulation is obtained independ-
ently from the derivatives of variations in the
material properties to account for material nonho-
mogeneity and dynamic effects.
(2) A UMAT subroutine is written in order to apply
the continuous variation of material properties in
the numerical analyses. The variation of density
for FGMs cannot be modeled in the UMAT sub-
routine. Therefore, density is defined as a function
of an additional variable i.e. temperature.
(3) The ABAQUS software is unable to compute the
SIFs of FGMs; therefore, a MATLAB code is
written, which uses real and auxiliary fields of
11
displacement, strain, and stress to compute the
interaction integral, and SIFs.
(4) The static and dynamic SIFs for both the homo-
geneous and nonhomogeneous materials are eval-
uated using the proposed dynamic interaction
integral.
(5) The DSIFs associated with the mixed mode of
failure are investigated for variations of the mater-
ial properties in the form of a sigmoidal function.
Highlights
. A UMAT subroutine is written in order to apply
the continuous variation of the material properties
in the numerical analyses. Moreover, density is
defined as a function of an additional variable
(i.e. temperature).
. A MATLAB code is written, which uses real and
auxiliary fields of displacement, strain, and stress
to compute the interaction integral, and SIFs.
. The dynamic interaction integral based on the
incompatibility formulation is obtained independ-
ently from the derivatives of variations in the
material properties to account for material nonho-
mogeneity and dynamic effects.
. The verification of the presented interaction inte-
gral method is carried out by solving homogeneous
and FGM problems under static and dynamic
loadings.
. The effects of the gradient of material properties on
the DSIFs of FGMs are investigated through sol-
ving several problems. The DSIFs associated with
the mixed mode of failure are investigated for vari-
ations of the material properties in the form of a
sigmoidal function.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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