The effect of the dislocation image force on the brittle behaviour of materials

Abstract

An exact solution for dislocations interacting with a surface crack in a thin plate material is derived. This solution is compared with the approximate solution proposed by Lung (1987). However, his result is only valid for a material with a sufficiently large thickness. It is found that the thinner materials have high toughness. Finally, the ratio of volume to area related to fracture is discussed.