Acoustic emission and dynamic energy release rate for steady growth of a tunneling crack in a plate in tension

The dynamic steady state growth of tunneling cracks in membrane loaded isot ropic Kirchhoff plates is considered. Explicit solutions for the asymptotic displacement and velocity fields are presented. It is shown that the asymp totic fields are inversely proportional to the square root of distance from the crack tip, and that a wake may or may not develop behind the crack tip depending on the static membrane state. If the crack tip velocity is small er than a certain critical velocity, the asymptotic solution will completel y vanish. An explicit solution for the dynamic energy release rate is also presented. Due to elastic waves radiated from the crack tip, the dynamic en ergy release rate will generally be smaller than the corresponding static e nergy release rate. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.