On Sanders' energy-release rate integral and conservation laws in finite elastostatics

Sanders showed in 1960, within the framework of two-dimensional elasticity, that in any body a certain integral I around a closed curve containing a crack is path-independent. I is equal to the rate of release of potential energy of the body with respect to crack length. Here we first derive, in a simple way, Sanders' integral I for a loaded elastic body undergoing finite deformations and containing an arbitrary void. The strain energy density need not be homogeneous nor isotropic and there may be body forces. In the absence of body forces, for flat continua, and for special forms of the strain energy density, it is shown that I reduces to the well-known vector and scalar path-independent integrals often denoted by J, L, and M.