Asymptotic fields for dynamic crack growth in non-associative pressure sensitive materials

Asymptotic near-tip fields are analyzed for a plane strain Mode I crack propagating dynamically in non-associative elastic–plastic solids of the Drucker–Prager type with an isotropic linear strain hardening response. Eigen solutions are obtained over a range of material parameters and crack speeds, based on the assumption that asymptotic solutions are variable-separable and fully continuous. A limiting speed, beyond which a tendency to slope discontinuity in angular distributions of stresses and velocities is detected, is found to deviate from the associative models. At low strain-hardening rates, the onset of the plastic potential corner zone ahead of the crack-tip imposes another limit to the crack speed. Correspondingly, those limits imply the limits to the degree of non-associativity at a given crack speed. In addition, a tendency to slope discontinuity in the angular radial stress distribution sets another limit on the non-associativity at vanishing hardening rates.