Tension and bending of finite thickness plates with a semi-elliptical surface crack

This paper deals with the tension and bending of finite thickness plates with a semi-elliptical surface crack. The analysis is performed by means of a modified body force method, in which the accuracy and the validity are greatly improved by using reasonable patterns of the body force densities and the resultant force boundary conditions. Numerical calculations are done for various combinations of the shape and the size of the crack, and practically exact values of the stress intensity factors are determined by extrapolating the numerical results for several mesh patterns. Empirical formulae in polynomial forms are also presented for convenience of practical use.