STRESS DISTRIBUTIONS FOR V-SHAPED NOTCHES UNDER TENSILE AND BENDING LOADS

An analytical solution has been proposed recently by the authors to de scribe, with a unified approach, the stress fields in the neighbourhoo d of sharp cracks, V-shaped notches and re-entrant corners in plates s ubjected to remote tensile loading. In the present paper, the above so lution is revised and extended, by also determining the relevant displ acement fields and the degree of accuracy of the solution for both the longitudinal and transverse stress fields. Afterwards, since the stre ss held depends on the type of loading, the circumferential principal stress component is modified to account for bending in fatigue life pr edictions, while the radial principal stress is almost negligible in t his case. The analytical results are compared with finite element valu es obtained for different geometries loaded under tensile or bending c onditions, as well as with other closed-form solutions. The new expres sions seem to give better stress estimates than the currently availabl e approximate solutions, whether analytical or numerical, when the ope ning angle of the re-entrant corner is equal to or greater than pi/2. Hence they should represent a good starting point to describe stress d istributions induced by stress raisers with large and well defined ope ning angles such as shafts with shoulder filets, gears and weldments.