The Influence of Geometry of the Specimen and Material Properties on the Q-Stress Value Near the Crack Tip for SEN(T) Specimen

In the paper the short theoretical backgrounds about elastic-plastic fracture mechanics were presented and the O’Dowd-Shih theory was discussed. Using ADINA System program, the values of the Q-stress determined for various elastic-plastic materials for SEN(T) specimen – single edge notched plates in tension – were presented. The influence of kind of the specimen, crack length and material properties (work-hardening exponent and yield stress) on the Q-parameter were tested. The numerical results were approximated by the closed form formulas. Presented in the paper results are complementary of the two papers published in 2007 (Graba, 2007) and in 2010 (Graba, 2010), which show and describe influence of the material properties and crack length for the Q-stress value for SEN(B) and CC(T) specimens respectively. Presented and mentioned papers show such catalogue of the Q-stress value, which may be used in engineering analysis for calculation of the real fracture toughness.