ELASTODYNAMIC STRESS INTENSITY FACTORS FOR A BIFURCATING CRACK.

It has been suggested by several authors that elastodynamic effects play an important role in the phenomenon of crack branching. In recent years, problems of elastodynamic crack ppropagation have been considered in considerable detail, but only for cases where either symmetry of antisymmetry exists with respect to the plane of crack propagation. In this paper a transient elastodynamic analysis is presented of the stress singularities which are generated in antiplane strain, at the propagating tips of the branches of a bifurcating crack. Each branch propagates with a different but constant velocity, and under a different angle. Numerical results are presented, showing the stress intensity factors versus the branching angles.