The stress intensity factors (SIFs) of cracked half-plane specimen in contact with semi-circular object

• SIFs of cracked half-plane specimen in contact with semi-circular object were analyzed.
• Photoelasticity experimental technique and FEM was used.
• The increase of the crack angle leads to decrease of KII.
• The second mode of SIF decreases after reaching a peak.

In this paper, photoelasticity technique was used to analyze the stress intensity factors (SIFs) of semi-infinitive plate with an edge crack in contact with the semi-circular wedge. The effects of different parameters such as crack angle, crack length, semi-circular wedge diameter and distance between the crack and the wedge tip on the second mode of stress intensity factor were investigated using experimental tests and numerical simulations. The crack length, crack angle, magnitude of the applied load, the distance between crack tip and loading position were varied in the tests. Image processing and linear elastic fracture mechanic (LEFM) method were used to compute SIFs from fringe patterns acquired from the experimental tests. Finally, a large number of finite element analyses have been carried out, and then numerical and experimental results were compared. The amount of the relative differences between numerical and experimental results was less than 9.8% indicating the high accuracy and good agreement.