Deformation of elastic bodies with thin ligaments (Q1315530)

A body with a hole in it has a thin ligament if the boundary of the hole approaches the outer surface of the body. The asymptotic form of the stress-deformation state of two- and three-dimensional bodies with ligaments is determined, using the width of the ligament as a small parameter. A boundary-layer effect arises near the ligament and can be described, in the two-dimensional case, by a system of ordinary differential equations which can be solved explicitly. Analysis of the asymptotic formulae indicates that the collapse of a ligament cannot be a quasistatic process (the Griffith energy balance is destroyed). In the three-dimensional case, the boundary layer is described by an elliptic system of equations in the plane.