Strain fields in cracked bodies under antiplane shear for a generalised non-hardening material law

An exact, closed form, solution is derived for the non-linear stress distribution in a cracked body under antiplane shear deformation. A generalised, non work-hardening, law is introduced to describe the material behaviour, and the stress and strain fields are derived in closed form. Such a new generalised material law includes the effect of a new parameter, a, which allows the transition from the ideally elastic behaviour (low strain regime) to the pure non-linear behaviour (large strain regime) to be modulated. A discussion is carried out on the features of the new solution and on the behaviour of stresses and strains close to and far away from the crack tip.