Stress Intensity Factors of Asymmetric Edge Cracks Emanating from a Central U-Shaped Notch in a Finite Plate under Tension

Abstract

In this paper, the stress intensity factors (SIFs) of two edge cracks which emanate asymmetrically from a center U-shaped notch in a finite plate under tension were computed by the body force method. The crack which is governed by the elastic notch stress field was treated as a short crack; the crack which is not almost influenced by the notch stress field was treated as a long crack. The cracks were divided into the short and long ones, and the SIFs were each investigated with respect to tendency. Then, it was found that the SIFs become nearly equal when both cracks are larger than 0.5ρ and smaller than (0.5W − t) even if the cracks are asymmetric, where ρ is a notch root radius, t is a notch depth and W is a half plate width. Moreover, the approximate calculations of the SIFs were performed by using the simple formulae for evaluating the SIFs of the eccentric crack in the finite plate and the short symmetric edge cracks emanating from the elliptical hole in the infinite plate. Then, the accuracy of the approximate calculations was examined by comparing with the solutions by the body force method.