Brittle failure of blunt V-shaped notch under mode I loading

Abstract

In the previous paper of the authors (Chen and Fan, 2019), the fracture evaluation of the U-shaped notches, which refer specifically to the V-shaped notches with the notch opening angle γ=0, has been investigated in details. In the present study, the evaluation technique of fracture loads for blunt V-shaped notches is investigated by using the mean stress criterion and the Filippi’s stress equation. It is found that the conclusions obtained in the previous study for the U-shaped notches with γ=0 can also apply to the V-shaped notches with γ≠0. Under certain geometric conditions the fracture loads of blunt V-shaped notches can be evaluated not only by the generalized notch stress intensity factor KICV,R, but also by the maximum stress at the notch root σmaxC. Both the values of KICV,R/KIC and σmaxC/σC can be expressed by a function of ρ/(KIC/σC)2. The geometric conditions can be estimated from the condition that the mean stress over the control region in the actual specimens can be approximately evaluated by Filippi’s stress equation.