A theory for the fracture of thin plates subjected to bending and twisting moments

Stress fields near the tip of a through crack in an elastic plate under bending and twisting moments are reviewed assuming both Kirchhoff and Reissner plate theories. The crack tip displacement and rotation fields based on the Reissner theory are calculated here for the first time. These results are used to calculate the J-integral (energy release rate) for both Kirchhoff and Reissner plate theories. Invoking Simmonds and Duva's [16] result that...