ASYMPTOTICS OF 3-DIMENSIONAL MACROCRACK MICROCRACK INTERACTION

The perturbation in the mode I stress intensity factor along the edge of a half-plane crack due to the opening of one or more co-planar penny-shaped cracks close to the edge calculated recently by the authors [Int. J. Solids Structures 30, 2117-2139 (1993)] using the finite element method is shown to have the same logarithmic asymptotic behaviour as that of its plane strain two-dimensional counterpart. The approximate method of solution used in that paper, however, does not predict this asymptotic behaviour.