“…In the first category scattering problems of plane elastic waves coming from infinity and scattered by cracks are studied by the following investigators: Maue [1], Sih and Loeber [2,3], Mal [4], Thau [5,6-1, Jain and Kanwal [7] and Itou [8], Angel and Achenbach [9], Gross and Zhang [10], Zhang and Achenbach [11] and so on. Problems of dynamic response of cracks to uniform tractions suddenly applied on their surfaces belong to the second category and are investigated by the following authors: Maue [12] and DeHoop [13], Ravera and Sih [14] and Sih et al Chen [17], Itou Tai and Li [ 19-1, etc. From the published literature it is seen that the study on elastodynamic response of cracks appears to be confined within the scope of plane incident waves or uniform impact tractions. When an elastic medium is stressed by some transient concentrated forces, a curved wave front will be generated to impinge cracks.…”