Fictitious notch rounding concept applied to V-notches with end holes under mode 3 loading

The present technical note is aimed to provide a closed form expression for the microstructural support factor and for the fictitious notch radius in plates weakened by V-notches with root end-holes. Taking advantage of some recent closed form expressions for the stress distributions due to V-notches with end holes the fictitious notch rounding approach is applied here to mode 3 loading. The factor s for the V-notch with end holes is found to be strongly influenced by the opening angle and the new values are compared with the previous solution available in the literature and dealing with blunt V-notches. To validate the new expressions a comparison is carried out between the theoretical stress concentration factor (SCF) obtained from a rounded V-notch with a fictitiously enlarged end hole (of radius rho f) and the effective stress concentration factor obtained by integrating the relevant stress over the microstructural characteristic length (MCL), rho*, in a pointed V-notch. A sound agreement is found from the comparison. The range of validity of the present equations are limited to linear elasticity or in those cases where the plastic zone is very small with respect to the MCL of the material. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.