j-integral

Submitted to the Journal of Applied Mechanics on 2/1/2010. 

Hello everyone,

Here is the problem I have: I'm modeling the geometry of a simple straight edge crack in a 2D elastic medium using Abaqus. I assume plain stress conditions. The crack makes an angle with the horizontal, is small enough to be considered as embedded in an infinite domain (ratio crack length/size of domain < 1/10) and I apply a vertical compressive load on top of my domain. I fixed one point in displacement at the bottom of it and the whole bottom edge is constrained not to move vertically.