Perfectly plastic caustics for the opening mode of fracture

Exact expressions for the caustics generated by the reflection of light surrounding crack tips in perfectly plastic materials under plane stress loading conditions and tensile tractions at infinity (mode I) are derived. Two individual cases are examined involving two different yield criteria. The first case uses an approximation of the Mises yield condition, where in the principal stress plane two intersecting parabolas replace the standard ellipse. The second case uses the Tresca yield condition where the mode I caustic is obtained as a limit of an elliptical hole in a perfectly plastic material. In both cases, kinematically admissible velocity fields are employed to obtain strain fields from which the theoretical caustics are predicted. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.