ANALYTICAL/NUMERICAL SOLUTIONS FOR A SINGLE HOLE-EDGE CRACK IN A NARROW PLATE UNDER PURE BENDING

The problem of a crack emanating from a hole in a plate has been widely studied. However, almost all studies to date assume the loading to be in the form of a uniform far-field tensile stress in the plane of the plate. This study examines the case of a far-field uniform bending moment acting on a finite plate/strip weakened by a crack emanating from the hole. Both on-center and off-center holes are considered. Stress intensity factors are determined for a variety of geometries. These computations are performed both analytically and numerically (finite element method). These computations are compared with each other and with experimental results obtained from cold-drawn 2024-T3 aluminum alloy plates. Statistical variations in the experimental results are estimated by using replicated tests. On average, analytical values of the non-dimensional stress intensity factors are 16% lower than the experimental values. There is also some deviation between the analytical and numerical results, and the reasons for these deviations are discussed in the paper.