USE OF THE DISTRIBUTED DISLOCATIONS METHOD TO DETERMINE THE <i>T</i>‐STRESS

Abstract

Abstract— This paper demonstrates a method to determine the elastic T ‐stress for a semi‐infinite half‐plane containing a surface‐breaking crack which is loaded by an arbitrarily distributed far‐field tension. The method consists of representing the crack by a continuous distribution of edge dislocations and forming singular integral equations to determine the equilibrium dislocation distributions. By numerically solving the integral equations, stress intensity factors and T ‐stresses are obtained for the example case of a crack which is normal and inclined to the free‐surface of a half‐plane and loaded by a uniform far‐field tension.