Analysis of Stress Intensity Factors for Chevron Notched Specimens by the Boundary Element Method

We analysed stress intensity factors for chevron notched bend specimens using the three dimensional boundary element method and compared this results with another ones analysed using Bluhm's slice model. Stress intensity factors were evaluated in two ways as the functions of crack length ; one is maximum values at the crack end and the other is average values by the energy method. Both average stress intensity factors evaluated by BEM and the slice model show good agreements. On the other hand, the maximum stress intensity factor is about 9 % higher than the average stress intensity factor at each minimum value. The distributions of stress intensity factors along the crack front were also evaluated for several crack lengths.