Two-parameter fracture mechanical analysis of a near-crack-tip stress field in wedge splitting test specimens

The stress intensity factor and the T-stress for the near-crack-tip field for wedge splitting test (WST) specimens with several variants of boundary conditions are computed using finite element software. The WST is a convenient alternative to classical fracture tests (bending, tensile) for the quasi-brittle fracture of building materials. The WST specimen is investigated within the framework of two-parameter fracture mechanics; near-crack-tip stress field parameters are determined and compared with those of the compact tension specimen due to its shape similarity to the WST. The sensitivity of the values of these parameters to the boundary conditions is also shown.