Triple longitudinal fracture of inhomogeneous beam under four-point bending

The present paper is devoted to fracture analysis of an inhomogeneous non-linear elastic beam configuration with three parallel longitudinal cracks. The material is continuously inhomogeneous along the beam height. The beam is subjected to four-point bending. The longitudinal fracture behavior is studied by applying the J-integral approach. Solutions to the J-integral are obtained for the three cracks. For this purpose, the curvature and the coordinates of neutral axes of the crack arms are determined by using the equations for equilibrium of the elementary forces in the cross-sections of different portions of the beam. The solutions to the J-integral are valid for arbitrary locations of the cracks along the beam height. Thus, the solutions are very useful for evaluating of the effects of locations of cracks on the fracture. The longitudinal fracture behavior is studied also in terms of the strain energy release rate in order to verify the solutions to the J-integral. Solutions to the strain energy release rate are derived for the three cracks by considering the complementary strain energy in the beam. The solutions to the J-integral are applied to evaluate the effects of locations of the cracks, the material inhomogeneity, the sizes of the beam cross-section, and the coordinates of the applications points of the external forces on the longitudinal fracture behavior of the beam.