Analysis of crack closure under plane strain conditions

The phenomenon of plasticity-induced crack closure is associated with the development of residual material on the flanks of an advancing fatigue crack. While it is easy to see that this residual material can come from the side faces of a specimen under plane stress conditions, it is difficult to discover the origin of this extra volume of material on the crack flanks when it is assumed that plane deformations occur and plastic flow is incompressible. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether plasticity-induced fatigue crack closure occurs in an elastic-perfectly plastic body under plane strain conditions.