ENERGY FLUX INTO THE TIP OF AN EXTENDING CRACK IN AN ELASTIC SOLID.

An expression for the energy flux into the tip of an extending crack in terms of the dynamic elastic field of the crack is derived on the basis of an overall energy rate balance. It is shown that the energy flux depends only on the near-tip elastic field. The expression is compared to other expressions for this dependence which have been proposed by Atkinson and Eshelby, by Achenbach and by Erdogan. The energy flux is calculated in terms of the stress intensity factor for a particular plane strain problem and an antiplane strain problem.