Calculation of mixed mode stress intensity factors for an elliptical subsurface crack under arbitrary normal loading

Normal loading causes mixed fracture modes in an elliptical subsurface crack because of the nonsymmetrical geometry with respect to the crack face. In this paper, mixed mode weight functions (MMWFs) for elliptical subsurface cracks in an elastic semi-infinite space under normal loading are derived. Reference mixed mode stress intensity factors (MMSIFs), calculated by finite element analysis, under uniform normal loading are used to derive MMWFs. The cracks have aspect ratios and crack depth to crack length ratios of 0.2-1.0 and 0.05 to infinity, respectively. MMWFs are used to calculate MMSIFs for any point of the crack front under linear and nonlinear two-dimensional (2D) loadings. So, in order to evaluate the fatigue crack growth phenomenon under complicated 2D stress distributions, MMWFs can be easily used. The comparison between the MMSIFs obtained from the MMWFs and finite element analysis indicates high accuracy.