Photoelastic Study of Stresses near Cracks in Thick Plates

Abstract
Uniform tension was applied to 1-in. thick 6-in. wide plates which contained edge cracks normal to the direction of loading. After stress freezing, slices normal to the plane of the crack were cut and analysed. The results were compared with theoretical solutions by Westergaard (1)‡ and Williams (2). In general, both solutions were found satisfactory, but the hydrostatic tension predicted for the line of the crack was not found. The slight inequality of the stresses changed the directions of the principal stresses radically near the line of the crack.

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