Fracture prediction of V-notches with end holes under combined tension-shear loading using the strain energy density criterion

Notches are one of the most common discontinuities in engineering structures which are created for engineering design purposes. Dealing with V-notches in components made of brittle materials, because of the presence of high stress concentration near the notch tip; detected cracks in this region should be removed and repaired to avoid brittle fracture. The most usual repairing method is to drill a circular hole at the V-notch tip. Clearly, this hole removes the crack and changes the initial notch geometry to a V-notch with end hole. Because of changing the initial notch feature, the load-carrying capacity of the new notch would be different from the initial one. Therefore, in order to assure the safety of the repaired structure, fracture assessment of the new notch is necessary. In the present research, first, a new test specimen, called Brazilian disk containing central V-notch with end hole, made of PMMA is considered for conducting fracture tests at room temperature and the experimental fracture loads are recorded. Some new test results are provided concerning brittle fracture in V-notches with end holes under mixed mode I/II loading. Then, to predict the experimental fracture loads, the strain energy density criterion is utilized. From the obtained results, it is shown that the strain energy density criterion could successfully predict the static strength of notched Brazilian disk specimens for different notch angles and various notch radii.