ON THE ELASTIC FIELDS OF INTERACTING DEFENSE AND MAIN HOLE SYSTEMS

In this study, a general solution describing the interaction between a main hole and an arbitrarily located defense hole, under uniaxial and biaxial loading conditions, was developed. The analysis was based upon the complex potentials of Muskhelishvili, an appropriate superposition procedure and the Laurent series expansion method adopted earlier by Isida [[1] Methods of Analysis and Solutions of Crack Problems (edited by G. C. SIH), pp. 56-130. Noordholf, Leydon (1973)] for the internal crack problem. In particular, the variation in the tangential stress and stress concentration factor (SCF) at the main hole were obtained in a general asymptotic form and explicit closed form expressions pertaining to the fourth order solution, using an appropriate perturbation technique, were developed. In addition to the explicit closed form expressions, higher order solutions were computed and used to provide a detailed description of the effect of the applied boundary loads and defense hole configurations upon SCF at main and defense holes. The present solution, which can be obtained to any desired degree of accuracy, is verified by comparison with existing ones and the results show excellent agreement. The work provides a useful quantitative design tool and a valuable insight into the effect of defense holes upon the stress distribution at a main hole in engineering structures.