Stress intensity factors for edge-cracked plates under arbitrary loading

Stress intensity factors for edge-cracked plates are commonly available for long plates with height-to-width ratios H / W  > 1. In the present note, stress intensity factor solutions are reported for short plates in tension and bending. In order to allow the computation of stress intensity factors under arbitrary loadings, two possibilities are considered. For the treatment of known stress distributions in the uncracked plate, the weight function is an appropriate tool. For arbitrarily prescribed tractions at the plate ends, a superposition method based on sectionally constant tractions is described and illustrated by examples.