Tilted lateral V-notches with root hole subjected to in-plane mixed mode loading: Fictitious notch rounding concept

The fictitious notch rounding concept is applied for the first time to inclined lateral V-notches with root hole subjected to in-plane mixed mode loading. Out-of-bisector crack propagation is taken into account by combining the fictitious notch rounding approach with the maximum tangential stress criterion. Following the guidelines of a previous paper dealing with internal notches, the fictitious notch radius is determined as a function of the real notch radius, the microstructural support length and the notch opening angle. The problem is of formidable complexity and for this reason a simple method based on the normal stress failure criterion is adopted here. The analytical method based on Neuber's procedure proposed for central notches is extended here to tilted lateral notches. The method provides the values of the microstructural support factor as a function of the mode mixity parameter and the notch opening angle. The support factor is considered to be independent of the microstructural support length. To validate the approach about two thousands finite element analyses have been performed varying the notch shape and load configuration. Finally an experimental validation has been performed considering a complete set of data from pointed V-notches made of polymethylmethacrylate. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.