Experimental determination of stress intensities and crack shapes associated with the nozzle corner crack problem

The method of stress freezing photoelasticity has been applied to a phase of the nozzle corner crack problem yielding results in the form of crack shapes and stress intensity factor distributions. Results of the current study are compared with alternate methods and different phases of the same problem. A discussion of the variational material behavior around the flaw border is also included. The applicability of the current method to the prediction of fatigue crack shapes is also discussed.