An analytical solution is obtained for the compact tension specimen modeled as a double-cantilevered beam with a linearly softening relation for the discontinuity. It is assumed that cracking does not occur until a critical value of traction is reached rather than assuming that failure initiates immediately. The consequence is that the solution must be separated into phases with continuity conditions invoked to transition from one phase to the next. The advantage of an analytical solution is that dimensionless variables are defined naturally as part of the analysis. Critical cases are identified and one can see immediately what size the structure must be in order for traditional scaling relationships to hold. In particular, it is shown that for short specimens, there is a significant reduction in maximum force from the conventional scaling relation that involves the square root of a size parameter. This reduction is obtained without the assumption that material parameters depend on specimen size.
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