ROTATIONAL FACTOR USING BENDING MOMENT APPROACH UNDER ELASTOPLASTIC SITUATION .2. CRACK 3PB GEOMETRY

Part I dealt with the evaluation of rotational factor considering the bending moment approach arising out of the stress distributions in the plane of fracture in a notched 3PB specimen. Part II is an extension of a similar approach for the situation with a sharp crack. The rotati onal factor is found to be around 0.41-0.42 in elastic situation (with out considering plastic zone) and varies between 0.42 and 0.47 in elas tic-plastic situation (considering plastic zone). Effects of other var iables like initial crack size (a(o)), load (P), elastic stress distri bution range, state of stress, etc. have also been investigated. A mil d dependency of a(o)/w on elastic rotational factor (r(e)) is observed in the range 0.15 less than or equal to a(o)/w less than or equal to 0.70, while the same is found to be independent of loading.