Author(s)

A.N. Galybin & A.V. Dyskin

Abstract

The account for non-singular terms of the near-crack-tip stress concentration makes it possible to explain experimentally observed dependence of the fracture toughness upon the crack length. Formulae for the stress intensity factor and the leading non-singular terms for an arbitrarily loaded edge crack are obtained in closed form. The influence of remote boundaries is discussed. Two examples of fitting the theoretical curves to the experimental data on the size effect in fracture toughness are presented. 1 Introduction It is recognized, Cotterell [1], Eftis & Subramonian [2], that neglecting non- singular terms in the asymptotic expansion of the stress tensor near a crack tip can lead to an inaccurate determination of fracture characteristics. In

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