Fracture analysis for orthotropic cracked plates

The present investigation is intended to study the elastostatic fracture response of an orthotropic cracked plate subjected at infinity to a biaxial uniform load. The effects of orthotropy and load biaxiality on the near crack tip elastic fields is pointed out. Considering the non-singular terms, the angle of incipient crack propagation and the fracture loci are obtained. For this purposes the strain energy density theory and the maximum circumferential stress theory are considered and extended to orthotropic materials. A numerical analysis is performed for a wide range of orthotropic material properties and applied loads.