ABSTRACT
The linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) approach has been successfully used to analyse isotropic materials, where stress intensity factors (SIFs) of a crack with length 2a in a finite plate for various geometries have been generalized as the stress intensity factor for an infinite plate by using a finite correction factor. This procedure has been adopted for composite materials by a number of investigators [1,2]; alternatively a finite plate of composite materials may be treated as an infinite plate by taking such a factor equal to 1 [3–5].
