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Previous studies on the effects constraint in elastic plastic fracture mechanics are mainlyconfined only to mode I cracks. Very little research has been carried out to study theeffects of constraint on mode II brittle fracture. In this research the variation of Q II withapplied load is obtained for a mode II specimen. The specimen is simulated by the finiteelement method to determine the extent of validity of Q II determined from the Q-Tdiagram. The constraint parameter Q II obtained from the finite element results (or the fullfield solution) is compared with Q II predicted using the Q-T diagram. It is shown that theresults of the full field solution are in good agreement with those of the Q-T diagram, butonly for low levels of load. For higher loads the discrepancy between the results of twomethods becomes significant.