This paper presents a modification of the domain integral method for cyclic loading and crack closure to compute the cyclic effective J-Integral as a near-field loading parameter. The path-dependency of the solution is discussed for different reference states of the field quantities in a cycle. It turns out that refering to the crack opening time point the cyclic effective J-Integral is path-independent for a domain outside the active plastic zone. The validity of this procedure is discussed by comparison with a global energy approach and theoretical field solutions for the J-controlled zone.
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