Dynamic stress intensity factors for homogeneous and smoothly heterogeneous materials using the interaction integral method

Dynamic stress intensity factors (DSIFs) are important fracture parameters in understanding and predicting dynamic fracture behavior of a cracked body. To evaluate DSIFs for both homogeneous and non-homogeneous materials, the interaction integral (conservation integral) originally proposed to evaluate SIFs for a static homogeneous medium is extended to incorporate dynamic effects and material non-homogeneity, and is implemented in conjunction with the finite element method (FEM). The technique is implemented and verified using benchmark problems. Then, various homogeneous and non-homogeneous cracked bodies under dynamic loading are employed to investigate dynamic fracture behavior such as the variation of DSIFs for different material property profiles, the relation between initiation time and the domain size (for integral evaluation), and the contribution of each distinct term in the interaction integral.