ANALYSIS OF MULTIPLE CRACKS IN AN INFINITE-PLATE UNDER ARBITRARY CRACK SURFACE TRACTIONS

Based on the analytical solution derived for a crack under arbitrary crack surface tractions an alternating method is presented to analyze two-dimensional mixed-mode fracture problems with multiple cracks which are arbitrarily distributed in an infinite plate. During the iterative solution process the reversed residual stresses at the location of fictitious cracks induced by other cracks are repeatedly evaluated and treated as new applied loading until the residual stresses on each crack surface are negligible. The influence of interaction effects among cracks on the determination of stresses and deformations is studied in detail. Several numerical example are solved to demonstrate the validity of the method. Good agreement between the computed stress intensity factors and referenced solutions shows the accuracy and efficiency of the this work. © 1990 Springer-Verlag.