Two-Dimensional Boundary Element Analysis of Edge Cracked Rectangular Plate Using Near-Tip Solution

This paper is concerned with a method for the analysis of two-dimensional crack problems using the boundary element method. In this method, a domain to be analyzed is divided into two regions: the near-tip region, which is a circular in shape and centered at the crack tip, and the outer region. The displacements and stresses in the near-tip region are expressed by the truncated infinite series of the eigenfunction with unknown coefficients. The outer region is formulated by the boundary element method. The system of linear algebraic equations with respect to nodal displacements, nodal tractions and the coefficients of the series are constructed by discretized boundary integration in the outer region and the continuity conditions. The two parallel edge cracked rectangular plate without symmetry under a uniform tension is treated and the dimensionless stress intensity factors are calculated.