Experimental and numerical studies on the crack growth under the quasi-static loading

It is known that the crack path varies due to various disturbance factors, such as a heterogeneity of the material and interaction between cracks. Images of crack growth from parallel cracks under the quasistatic loading is captured by the ultra-high-speed camera, and the stress field around the propagating crack tip is visualized with the aid of dynamic photo-elastic technique in this work. First, the stability and the distribution pattern of crack path are discussed from the captured images. And then, the accuracy of the numerical quasi-static analysis of crack growth is studied through the comparison with the visualized stress field around the propagating crack tip.