Prediction of fracture initiation in thermo-viscoelastic material

In this study. we propose a method to predict fracture initiation time for thermo-viscoelastic material by using master curves of stress intensity factors and fracture toughness, which are derived according to the time-temperature equivalence principle. As a concrete example, we analyzed a problem concerning a thermo-viscoelastic cylinder with a crack under steady or transient-isothermal temperature and crack length conditions. We show the process for predicting fracture initiation time. Based on the analysis results, we conclude that this method is useful for estimating crack propagation and is also available to solve various fracture problems dealing with thermo-viscoelastic materials.