WEIGHT FUNCTION FOR THE SURFACE POINT OF SEMIELLIPTIC SURFACE CRACK IN A FINITE THICKNESS PLATE

The weight function for the surface point of a semi-elliptical crack in a plate of finite thickness has been derived and tested against numerical data available in the literature. Derivation was accomplished by using the universal weight function form and two reference stress intensity factors. It was found that a four term expression was sufficient to approximate weight functions for a variety of crack shapes and depths. Using this approach it was possible to calculate stress intensity factors for several nonlinear stress fields to an accuracy of better than 3% when compared with the finite element data.