• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.3105-3114
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• 1993

previously, several basic studies in the experimental analysis of stress intensity factors of cracks by slab analogy have been presented by authors. But, for the application of above mentioned method to the analysis of the arbitrarily distributed cracks, there still is several bottlenecks to be overcome in terms of its experimental process and data treatment. Moreover, authors recently proposed an improved experimental method to use the fixed slab analogy device which has promised more accurate measurement of S.I.F. of small cracks. In this paper, for the completion of slab analogy analysis of distributed cracks, a grating imaginary rotation method is introduced. And, to prove its validity, this combined method is applied to the determination of stress intensity factors of theoretically known distributed cracks. The results show good agreement with the existing theoretical solutions and physical crack propagation tendencies.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.67-82
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• 2005

This study analyzes stress intensity factors for a number of periodic edge cracks in a semiinfinite medium subjected to a far field uniform applied load along with a distribution of eigenstrain. The eigenstrain is considered to be distributed arbitrarily over a region of finite depth extending from the free surface. The cracks are represented by a continuous distribution of edge dislocations. Using the complex potential functions of the edge dislocations, a simple as well as effective method is developed to calculate the stress intensity factor for the edge cracks. The method is employed to obtain the numerical results of the stress intensity factor for different distributions of eigenstrain. Moreover, the effect of crack spacing and the intensity of the normalized eigenstress on the stress intensity factor are investigated in details. The results of the present study reveal that the stress intensity factor of the periodic edge cracks is significantly influenced by the magnitude as well as distribution of the eigenstrain within the finite depth. The eigenstrains that induce compressive stresses at and near the free surface of the semi-infinite medium reduce the stress intensity factor that, in turn, contributes to the toughening of the material.