Variation of the stress intensity factor along the crack front of interacting semi-elliptical surface cracks (Q5932297)

The authors consider the interaction between two semi-elliptical co-planar surface cracks. Using the body force method, the problem is reduced to a system of singular integral equations, and then the unknown body force density is approximated by the product of a fundamental density function and a polynomial. Numerical results are given for the variation of stress intensity factor along the crack front.