Abstract
Hodograph transformations can be used to linearize a nonlinear partial differential equation by judicious use of physical quantities (e.g. velocities or displacement gradients) as coordinate variables in the hodograph plane. This approach has been found useful for obtaining the leading order terms of eigenproblems that govern asymptotic singular crack fields in nonlinear materials. There is little work on the use of the hodograph transformation for obtaining higher order terms in the asymptotic expansion of the crack tip fields. In this paper, we develop a framework to obtain such higher order terms using the hodograph transformation. The method relies heavily on the representation of physical quantities of interest in terms of hodograph plane variables. We demonstrate the method via application to a generalized neo-Hookean material. In addition, asymptotic path-independent J-integrals are expressed in terms of either physical or hodograph variables and are used to compute the leading-order amplitude coefficients. A relationship between the asymptotic J-integrals and the energy release rate is established for a mixed crack mode. The asymptotic results are compared with numerical results from finite element computation and excellent agreement is obtained.