The influence of h0 and h1 are studied in detail. The branched crack becomes a straight one when h0 ¼ h1. Since generalized
SIFs, EDIFs and ERRs are always identical in magnitude for both two crack tips when h0 reaches some values, only one of
them needs to be studied. Considering the crack tip A, the normalized SIFs, EDIFs and ERRs versus the geometric size ratio
H1=W for h0 ¼ 45 is tabulated in Table 8. Fig. 16 displays the variations of the normalized SIFs, EDIFs and ERRs with the angle
h0 for different H1=W.