ASYMPTOTIC SOLUTION FOR LONG CRACKS EMANATED FROM A PORE IN COMPRESSION

The 2-D problem of two collinear radial cracks emanating from a circul ar pore towards the applied uniaxial compression has been considered. Long crack asymptotic expressions have been obtained for the stress in tensity factor and the area of the crack opening. Comparison with nume rical results has shown that this solution can still be used even if t he crack length reaches half of the pore radius. On the basis of this solution, an approximate method considering the pair of cracks as a si ngle long crack subjected to the stress field generated separately fro m the pore has been proved to give an acceptable result. The approxima te method has also been extended to the 3-D case.