TENSION AND BENDING OF A SEMI-ELLIPTICAL SURFACE CRACK.

The tension and the bending of a finite thickness plate with a semi-elliptical surface crack is considered. Preliminary calculations for a flawed semi-infinite solid have shown that the stress intensity factor at the deepest point on the crack front, which is the main concern of this paper, is little affected by whatsoever is happening in the boundary layer along the front surface. On this basis, the boundary layer effect is ignored throughout the analysis. The analysis is done by generalizing the previously described body force method in which the boundary conditions of the front surface are completely satisfied, and those of the crack and the back surface are treated by superposing the stress states of a semi-infinite solid subjected to concentrated forces.