STRESS INTENSITY FACTORS FOR WEDGE-SPLITTING GEOMETRY

The wedge-splitting test is a novel procedure for measuring fracture p roperties in quasi-brittle materials, such as ceramics, rocks and conc rete. Stress intensity factors, for most of the practical wedge splitt ing geometries, have been computed and are presented in this paper in analytical and graphical form. The stress intensity factors were numer ically computed using the finite element method. Mesh objectivity and some other aspects in relation to computational precision are consider ed. The behaviour of the stress intensity factor for deep and shallow cracks was analyzed taking into account the asymptotic trends in both cases. An expression for the stress intensity factor - valid for all c rack sizes and for usual geometries - is given.