Determination of stress intensity factors for cracks emanating from holes in finite thickness plates

The stress freezing photoelastic method is a proven technique for the estimation of stress intensity factors along crack fronts in complex three dimensional problems. Comparisons between previous photoelastic and approximate analytical results have revealed discrepancies in results for the case where the crack shape is nearly quarter circular. In the present study, the frozen stress photoelastic method was applied to such geometries with varying flaw depth. Results are compared with those of other investigators. It is concluded that the flaw growth in this problem is non-self similar due to the complexity of boundary shapes. The variation of the stress intensity factor along the crack front is also studied.