Determination of the mode I stress intensity factors for an edge-cracked beam with fixed ends

When welded structures are statically indeterminate, a significant 'lock-in' force and/or moment may develop in the member that has the least stiffness or cross-section. If the member is long and slender it may be treated as a beam with fixed ends. In this paper, a solution of mode I stress intensity factors is obtained for an edge-cracked beam with fixed ends. Since the solution applies to an arbitrary normal loading on crack faces, it can be used to compute KI due to residual stresses which are in general nonuniform. Numerical results are presented to show the effect of the fixed-end boundary conditions on stress intensity factors for different loading and geometric configurations. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.