Behavior of an Extended Dislocation near an Elliptical Blunt Crack

The behavior of an extended dislocation near an elliptical blunt crack is investigated. The equilibrium separation between Shockley partials and the critical value of stacking fault energy for the formation of extended dislocations by dissociation reaction as well as the extended dislocation emission criterion are developed. The results show that the equilibrium separation increases as the extended dislocation tends to the blunt crack. If the stacking fault energy is comparable to the critical energy for dissociation in a perfect medium, complete dislocations can dissociate to form extended dislocations near the blunt crack. The critical stress intensity factor (SIF) for extended dislocation emission increases with the stacking fault energy and the curvature radius of the blunt crack tip. Moreover, the critical SIF for extended dislocation emission is far lower than the critical SIF for edge dislocation emission.