On the development of the strip yield model for the assessment of multiple site damage

Abstract The strip yield model is used to assess the link-up of multiple fatigue cracks in a simple open hole configuration. This analysis is based upon the complex stress function formulation of the problem of multiple straight collinear cuts in an infinite sheet. The predictions of link-up and fracture are compared to results from a fatigue crack propagation test on an open hole specimen, and are shown to be in very close agreement.