In the first part of this paper, the crack extension in the center notched circular disk subjected to a diametral compression is nu- merically examined. The crack initiation from the notch tip is esti- mated by assuming that crack growth…
In the first part of this paper, the crack extension in the center notched circular disk subjected to a diametral compression is nu- merically examined. The crack initiation from the notch tip is esti- mated by assuming that crack growth occurs in the direction along which the drop of total potential of tractions per unit length of crack growth takes a maximum value. It was observed that the result of numerical analysis reproduced fairly well an experimantal obser- vation. In the second part, the maximum potential drop concept is applied to the crack initiation and propagation analysis for an unsymmetrically notched beam subjected to the three-point-bent. The obtained results are reasonable.