Fictitious notch rounding concept applied to V-notches with root holes subjected to in-plane shear loading

The fictitious notch rounding concept is applied here for the first time to V-shaped notches with root hole subjected to in-plane shear loading. The fictitious notch radius is determined as a function of the real notch radius, the microstructural support length and the notch opening angle, at first using the normal stress criterion in combination with the maximum tangential stress criterion for finding the crack propagation angle. Two analytical methods have been developed resulting in closed form expressions for the multiaxiality factor s. Finally, for comparison, the factor s is determined also on a purely numerical basis by iteration of FE-models.