Evaluation of J-integral for surface cracked plates under biaxial loading using extended reference stress method

In this paper, reference stress solutions for plates with semi-elliptical surface cracks were firstly reviewed, and the applicability of the solutions was examined through the comparison with finite element analysis results under uniaxial loading. Next, an extended reference stress method was newly developed to evaluate J-integral for cracked plates under biaxial loading. The predictive accuracy of the method was validated through the comparison with finite element analysis results under biaxial loading. As a result, it was ascertained that the proposed method together with Lei's reference stress solution predicts J-integral with acceptable accuracy. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.