Stress Concentrations for Slotted Plates in Bi-Axial Stress

The photo-elastic method has been employed to determine stress concentration factor (SCF) for square plates containing holes and inclined slots when the plate edges are subjected to in-plane tension combined with compression. Analyses given of the isochromatic fringe pattern surrounding the hole provides the SCF conveniently. The model material is calibrated from the known solution to the stress raiser arising from a small circular hole in a plate placed under biaxial tension-compression. These results also compare well with a plane stress FE analysis. Consequently, photo-elasticity has enabled SCF’s to be determined experimentally for a biaxial stress ratio, nominally equal to –4, in plates containing a long, thin slot arranged to be in alignment with each stress axis. The two, principal stresses lying along axes of symmetry in the region surrounding the notch are separated within each isochromatic fringe by the Kuske method [1]. FE provides a comparable full-field view in which contours of maximum shear stress may be identified with the isochromatic fringe pattern directly. The principal stress distributions referred to the plate axes show their maximum concentrations at the notch boundary. Here up to a fourfold magnification occurs in the greater of the two nominal stresses under loads applied to the plate edges. Thus, it is of importance to establish the manner in which the tangential stress is distributed around the slot boundary. Conveniently, it is shown how this distribution is also revealed from an isochro-matic fringe pattern, within which lie the points of maximum tension and maximum compression.

New Methods of Determining the Mixed Mode Stress Intensity Factors for V-Shaped Notch

In this paper, on the basis of the stress field given by D.H.Chen, three new photoelastic methods are developed for determining the stress intensity factors K1 and K2 of V-shaped notch. Some photoelastic experiments are performed on a skew -symmetric 45° notch. Measurements of the coordinates components of r,θand fringe order N are made for progressively smaller fringes and used in the proposed methods to solve K1 and K2.Plots of apparent K vs. r/l are made and extrapolated to the notch tip to yield the true values of K1 and K2.The results obtained by the three methods are very close to each other. When the notch problem is simplified as a crack problem, the corresponding equation is identical to the one proposed by D.G. Smith, which shows that the proposed methods are applicable for both notch and crack problems.

Crack-Tip Stress Analysis at a Bi-Material Interface by Photoelastic, Isopachic and FEA

The paper investigates the stress state at the bi-material interface crack-tip by the Photoelastic and Isopachic methods and the Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The principal stresses at the bi-material interface crack-tip are theoretically determined using the combination photoelastic and isopachic fringes. The size and the shape of crack-tip isochro-matic and isopachic fringes, at a bi-material interface under static load, are studied. When the crack-tip, which is perpendicular to interface, is placed at the interface of the bi-material, the isochromatic and the isopachic fringes depend on the properties of the two materials. Thus, the isochromatic and the isopachic fringes are divided into two branches, which present a jump of values at the interface. The size of the two branches mainly depends on the elastic modulus and the Poisson’s ratio of the two materials. From the combination of the isochromatic and the isopachic fringes, the principal stresses σ1 and σ2 can be estimated and the contour curves around the crack-tip can be plotted. For the FEA analysis, the program ANSYS 11.0 was used. The bi-material cracked plates were made from Lexan (BCBA) and Plexiglas (PMMA).