AbstractAn elastic‐plastic fracture mechanics study on the effects of biaxial stress fields is presented relating to various centre and edge notches containing short cracks under plane strain. The elastic stress intensity factor and the non‐singular elasticT‐stress term are determined by finite element analyses. Comparisons of these results with small scale yielding plastic zone size predictions are given for a wide range of applied stress intensity factors, revealing an improved correlation when considering theT‐stress effect. The influence of positive biaxial stress‐induced crack closure on the stress intensity factor is also