The primary purpose of this work is to demonstrate that the location of a c
rack can strongly affect the sequence of plastic hinge development which in
turn affects crack stability of a structure. A specific example of an elas
tic-plastic ring loaded with diametrically opposite concentrated loads is e
mployed to investigate these effects. The method used is based on elastic s
uperposition to obtain the elastic-plastic behavior and to evaluate the cra
ck stability with plastic hinges present. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. Al
l rights reserved.