An application of potential theory for solving the plane elastic crack problem

Abstract

An elastic field of displacements in the vicinity of a plane rectilinear crack inside an infinite plate is determined using the potential method. It is shown that the solution of this problem obtained by Muskhelishvili is not the unique one. The paper gives the general solution of this problem which depends upon a finite number of constants. Physically, the constants will take those values which provide for a minimum of the elastic energy of a plate with a crack of a given length. [Russian Text Ignored]