Dugdale strip-yield model

Summary

The Dugdale strip-yield model describes the plastic zone ahead of a crack in a thin sheet of an elastic–perfectly plastic material. The plastic zone is modelled as a thin strip along the crack line. In the strip, the faces of a fictitious longer crack are held together by a constant stress equal to the yield stress. The length of the strip is chosen so that the stress at the end of the strip is finite. The model is a cohesive zone model with constant cohesive traction. It gives the plastic zone size and the crack tip opening displacement in closed form.