Crack arrest at a tear strap under mixed mode loading

Abstract A hybrid experimental-numerical investigation was undertaken to establish a crack kinking criterion and hence crack arrest at a tear strap under mixed mode crack tip deformation. Experimentally determined crack velocities and crack paths from 2024-T3 and 7075-T6 aluminum alloys, cruciform fracture specimens, 0.81 mm thick with a 25.4 mm wide and 0.81 mm thick tear strap, were input to a dynamic finite element code to compute the necessary fracture parameters. These results were then used to verify three-parameter crack extension and curving criteria under mixed mode loading.