Stress intensity factors for several groups of equal and parallel cracks in finite plates

Abstract

Several groups of equal and parallel 2D cracks in finite width plates subjected to remote tensile loading have been studied. Formulae for calculating the stress intensity factors of these crack configurations have been proposed from the finite element analysis, and the difference between the formulae and the finite element results is smaller than 3%. On this basis, the influence of crack interactions on stress intensity factors (SIF) is discussed, and it can be seen that interaction between multiple cracks could produce either strong enhancement or shielding effects on the SIF depending on the crack positions and lengths.