STRESS INTENSITY FACTORS OF 2 SKEW-PARALLEL PENNY-SHAPED CRACKS IN A 3-D TRANSVERSELY ISOTROPIC SOLID

The interaction between two skew-parallel penny-shaped cracks with dif ferent sizes in an infinite transversely isotropic solid subjected to uniaxial tension has been investigated in the present paper. A close-f orm analytical approximated solution for the stress intensity factors on the boundaries of the cracks is obtained by the approach of a serie s expansion in term of the distance between the centers of the cracks. The influence of the transversely isotropic material property on the interactions between the cracks are discussed in detail through numeri cal examples. It is found that the stress intensity factors (SIFs) of the cracks are strongly related to the elastic moduli of the material. This phenomenon is quite different from the isotropic material case w here in most cases SIFs are independent of material constants. Besides , shielding and anti-shielding (amplifying) effects are shown for vari ous relative sizes and positions of the cracks.