FAILURE PREDICTION OF A PLATE WEAKENED BY AN ELLIPTIC HOLE UNDER THERMAL OR MECHANICAL LOAD

The failure initiation and crack trajectory are predicted for a plate weakened by an elliptic hole under thermal or mechanical load. The clo sed form solutions are obtained by using the complex variable theory a nd the fracture behavior is predicted by applying the strain energy de nsity criterion. The results lead to a number of important conclusions . A general trend is that failure initiation always occurs at the site near the interface with material inhomogeneity while the fracture tra jectory tends to spread away from the boundary of an elliptic hole whe ther thermal or mechanical loads are imposed in the given problem. Fra cture initiation is most likely to take place at the site with relativ ely low temperature accompanied by the presence of tensile stress. Dep ending on material geometry, kinking phenomena are observed at the bou ndary layer adjacent to the interface. In general, the critical load i n compression is larger than that in tension.