THE STRESS-FIELD NEAR THE FRONT OF AN ARBITRARILY SHAPED CRACK IN A 3-DIMENSIONAL ELASTIC BODY

The problem stated in the title is investigated with special emphasis on the first three terms of the stress expansion, proportional to r-1/2 , r0 = 1 and r1/2 respectively, where r denotes the distance to the crack front. The particular case of a plane crack with a straight front and of stresses independent of the distance along the latter is studied first. It is shown that the classical plane strain and antiplane solutions must be supplemented by a few additional particular solutions to obtain the full stress expansion. The general case is then considered. The stress expansion is studied by writing the field equations (equilibrium, strain compatibility and boundary conditions) in a system of suitable curvilinear coordinates. It is shown that the number of independent constants in the stress expansion is the same as in the particular case considered previously but that the curvatures of the crack and its front and the non-uniformity of the stresses along the latter induce the appearance of corrective terms in this expansion.