Author(s)

A.P.S. Selvadurai

Abstract

We consider the problem of an edge crack of finite length which is located normal to the boundary of a uniformly stressed plate. The region in the vicinity of the crack is assumed to be damaged over an elliptical region and the fibres exhibit continuity or bridging across the faces of the crack. The paper outlines the use of a boundary element technique for the determination of the influence of the damaged zone and the crack bridging on the stress intensity factor at the crack tip. 1 Introduction Unidirectionally reinforced solids are utilized quite extensively in engineering applications where directional strength can be used to advantage The applications can range from filament winding of pressure vessels to umdirectionally reinforced structural plates used in the aerospace industry Usually, such composites consist of a relati

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