Identification of Defects in an Elastic Body by Means of the Boundary Measurements

Abstract

A problem of identification of a single defect (a crack, a cavity or an inclusion) in an anisotropic, linear elastic body using boundary measurements is considered. An analytical solution of the problem of ellipsoidal defect identification in an infinite elastic solid is presented in the conditions when arbitrary constant stresses are applied at the infinity and the loads and displacements are known on a closed surface, containing the defect inside. The problem is solved using reciprocity gap functional method. The obtained analytical solution is used for solving the problem of ellipsoidal defect identification in a bounded elastic body by means of the results of one static test. It is assumed that the loads and displacements are measured on the external boundary of the body. Numerical examples illustrating efficiency of the developed method are considered. Stability of the results relative to the noise in the data and variation of the defect shape is studied.