Interaction between two equal skew-parallel cracks

Abstract

A thorough study of the interaction effects between two equal skew-parallel cracks in a plate subjected to a tensile or a compressive uniform stress perpendicular to the direction of the cracks was undertaken. The dependence of the critical stress of fracture and the pattern of initial crack propagation on the geometrical configuration and loading of the plate was analysed. It was found that crack propagation starts from the inner or the outer tips of the cracks depending on their geometry. For the first case, one inner tip propagates either in the direction of the other or in the opposite direction, while for the second case the two cracks always propagate in opposite directions. A comparison between the case when the two cracks act as one and when each acts separately from the other was made and the limits of the horizontal and vertical distances between the cracks, for which their behaviour approaches the one or the other situation, were established.