Modelling of the crack growth initiation in viscoelastic media by the Gθv-integral

In this paper, the effects of viscoelastic characteristics on the creep crack growth initiation are studied by developing a new path-independent integral Gθv which allows us to compute the energy release rate with the finite element method. The originality of this approach is the perfect uncoupling between the viscous dissipation and the free energy which drives the crack propagation and the crack growth initiation. Coupled with an explicit finite element formulation of the linear viscoelastic behavior, this integral allows us to simulate accurate crack growth initiation.