Bounds on stress concentration factors in finite anti-plane shear (Q789918)

In this paper the authors consider an anti-plane finite deformation of an infinite elastic, homogeneous and isotropic solid with circular cylindrical cavity. It is assumed that the strain energy function depends on the first invariant of the deformation tensor only. For such problem they find upper and lower bounds for the stress concentration factor \(K=\tau_{\max}/\tau_{\infty}\), here \(\tau_{\max}=\max \sqrt{\tau^ 2\!_{13}+\tau^ 2\!_{23}}\), where the maximum value is taken over the closure of the cross-section of the considered domain, \(\tau_{\infty}\) denotes an applied stress at infinity. To obtain upper bounds for hardening materials in shear and lower bounds for softening materials in shear the suitable comparison theorem is proved and applied. Comparison functions in both for hardening and softening behavior are given. The remaining bounds are established only for small values of \(\tau_{\infty}.\) This problem has been solved analytically basing on the minimum principle and comparison theorems for elliptic equations. The general problem of this type is at present rather difficult to solve. The authors claim that the problems discussed in this paper are ''of less practical interest than their analogs in plane stress or plane strain, these problems are much simpler to analyze analytically and serve a useful role as pilot problems''. The paper reads well and will be of interest to researchers in mathematical elasticity.