Corrected stress intensity factor solution for a British standard single edge notched tension (SENT) specimen

This paper revisits a complicated analytical solution of the stress intensity factor K adopted in a newly published British standard BS 8571:2014 for clamped single edge notched tension (SENT) specimens. Comparison with existing numerical results of K shows that the analytical K solution in BS 8571 is correct only for the crack length to specimen width ratio a / W  ≤ 0.6, but incorrect for a / W  > 0.6. A reinvestigation is thus performed using the crack compliance method, and a corrected K solution is obtained for the BS 8571 clamped SENT specimens over the full range of a / W . On this basis, a simple closed‐form solution of K is obtained using the best curve fitting with an accuracy within 1% for crack sizes up to a / W  = 0.98. Results show that the proposed closed‐form solution of K agrees well with the numerical results of K for the clamped SENT specimens.