T-Stresses Across Static Crack Kinking

This paper is concerned with the T-stress change before and after crack kinking in two-dimensional elastic solids. By using asymptotic analysis and the Westergaard stress function method, approximate analytical formulas for calculating the T-stress as well as stress intensify factors of an infinitesimal kink are given. Contributions from the T-stress before crack kinking, to the T-stress and the stress intensity factors of the kinked crack, are clearly described. It is noted that since the sign of the T-stress of a kinked open crack might be different from that of a main crack, simply using the sign of the T-stress before crack kinking is not sufficient to determine crack growth stability as observed in recent experiments.