STRESS INTENSITY FACTORS OF PARALLEL CRACKS IN A FINITE WIDTH SHEET

Abstract Two and three parallel cracks in a finite sheet subjected to remote tensile loading have been studied. This paper presents empirical stress intensity factor formulae for these crack configurations. The stress intensity factors used to develop these formulae were obtained from finite element analysis. For central cracks and edge cracks, the formulae were within 1 and 3% of the finite element results, respectively.