Crack shielding and material deterioration in damaged materials: an antiplane shear fracture problem

A simple damage evolution model is proposed for a quasibrittle material in the framework of continuum damage mechanics. The model is used to obtain a closed form solution for a mode-III stationary crack under small scale damage conditions. It is found that the crack tip stress intensity factor is reduced, i.e., the crack is shielded by the damage. However, this shielding effect is completely offset by the material deterioration caused by the damage. It also holds for steady state crack growth. When the most effective shielding is reached for the stationary crack, the zone dominated by the stress intensity factor shrinks to the crack tip. The results for the antiplane shear problem should shed some light on the inplane fracture problem.