Solution of stress intensity factors of multiple cracks in plane elasticity with eigen COD formulation of boundary integral equation

Abstract

The concept of eigen crack opening displacement (COD) can be defined as the COD of a crack in infinite plate under the tractions acting on the crack surface. By introducing this concept, the eigen COD formulation of boundary integral equation is proposed in this paper, together with the solution procedures for multiple crack problems in plane elasticity. With the proposed approach, the multiple crack problems can be solved with the conventional displacement discontinuity boundary integral equations in an iterative fashion with a small size of system matrix as that in the numerical Green’s function (NGF) approach but without the trouble to determine the complementary solutions since the standard boundary element discretization on the crack surface is no longer required with the proposed approach. Some numerical examples computing the stress intensity factors are presented and compared with those in literature to show the accuracy and the effectiveness of the proposed approach.