Th. Leek et Ic. Howard, ESTIMATING THE ELASTIC INTERACTION FACTORS OF 2 COPLANAR SURFACE CRACKS UNDER MODE-I LOAD, International journal of pressure vessels and piping, 60(3), 1994, pp. 307-321
Two cracks sufficiently close together will interact by causing the st
ress intensity factor at the tips of each to increase. The amount of t
his increase can be quantified through the use of interaction factors.
This paper studies the form of these for the important and practical
special case where the cracks have a semi-elliptical shape. A continuo
us method of approximate solution is proposed in this paper, and it is
shown to be effective in the closeness of its predictions to those in
the literature, and to our own finite element analyses. The work is a
precursor to an assessment when cracks are close enough for interacti
on to need evaluation. This forms the subject of a companion paper.