The evaluation of stress intensity factors in plate bending problems using the dual boundary element method (Q1961171)

The paper analyses the bending problem for elastic plates with cracks. Since the plate thickness is not any more the shortest characteristic dimension of the problem, the classical (Kirchhoff) theory of bending of thin elastic plates is not adequate. Thus the authors use the Reissner plate bending equations. The dual boundary element method is employed in order to obtain a unified formulation for boundary value problems with cracks. Several techniques are used for evaluation of stress intensity factors from the elastic solution. Finally, a lot of numerical computations have been performed for plane plates with different combinations of boundary conditions, crack configurations and loading conditions.