A Study of the Stress Intensity Factors of Kinked Cracks by the Body Force Method(BFM)

In engineering practice, cracks usually propagates along the kinked path rather than its original direction, so the kinked crack becomes an important problem to be solved in engineering practice. In this paper, the kinked cracks of a semi-infinite plate subjected to extension loading are systematically investigated by using the Body Force Method (BFM). The principle about the application of the BFM to the cracks is described simply and a series of programs are written for solving the kinked crack problems. All the programs are proved correct and reliable. A great number of kinked cracks are calculated, which enriches the materials of the kinked cracks and offers quite valuable data to engineering practice.