Crack path determination

In responsible elements of the planes, bridges and other constructions from metal and composite materials the stress state in the tips of crack is mixed type. At that the conditions of rectilinear growth of a crack are violated as shown by numerous observations and experiments. Thus the problem about determination not only of critical sizes of a crack and critical external loads but also of the path (trajectory) on which crack growth arises. The existing methods of mixed mode crack growth propagation are limited as a rule by consideration of isotropic materials and special kinds of geometry and loading where the crack has rectilinear propagation. In this paper the method of crack growth trajectory determination in anisotropic plate are presented. This method is based on well known solutions of the plane problem of the theory of elasticity for the anisotropic plates with cracks, any fracture criterion and spline theory.