A synthesis of geometry effect on brittle fracture

There are numerous analytical solutions in order to take into account the geometry effect on the fracture toughness and the fracture load of the cracked specimens. However, due to the complexities of the mentioned criteria it is practical to have an engineering method which can be used for fracture prediction in cracked samples of various shapes and loading conditions. In this paper, the fracture behaviors of five different testing samples made of various brittle and quasi-brittle materials have been studied using an energy based criterion namely the Average Strain Energy Density (ASED) criterion. According to the formulation of the ASED criterion, all the stress terms around the crack tip were taken into account and the brittle fracture of different samples with various geometry constraints were well predicted.