Finite Fracture Mechanics crack initiation from a circular hole

The brittle crack initiation from a circular hole in an infinite slab under uniaxial remote tensile load is investigated. The analysis consists of two parts. The former is focused on the difference between symmetric and asymmetric crack propagation. Different criteria in the framework of the Theory of Critical Distances are implemented, and the potentiality of coupled Finite Fracture Mechanics (FFM) approaches is highlighted from a theoretical point of view. The latter presents the experimental results obtained by carrying out ad-hoc tensile tests on polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) and general-purpose polystyrene (GPPS) notched samples and the related FFM investigation. It is shown that FFM predictions are in very good agreement with the experimental results for both tested materials.