An investigation of the edge-sliding mode in fracture mechanics
A boundary collocation procedure has been applied to the Williams stress function to determine the elastic stress distribution for the crack tip region of a finite, edge-cracked plate subjected to mode II loading at the crack tips. The asymmetric specimen selected was particularly suitable for the determination of plane strain fracture toughness for mode II loading. Numerical solutions for stress intensity factors for the edge-sliding mode obtained by the boundary collocation method were in close agreement with values obtained from photoelastic experiments. Fracture tests of several compact shear specimens of 2024-T4 aluminum were conducted in order to experimentally investigate the behavior of the edge-sliding mode. In each case a brittle shear failure was observed and mode II fracture toughness values were obtained. The average value for K-IIc obtained from two tests was 39.5 ksi radical (in). No K-Ic data for 2024-T4 were available for comparison purposes; however, K-Ic values for a similar alloy, 2024-T351, have been reported as 34 ksi radical (in) which is only about 15 per cent below the corresponding K-IIc value.