Abstract
Machine or structural members subjected to fatigue loading will have a crack initiated during early part of their life. Therefore analysis of members with cracks and other discontinuities is very important. Finite element method has enjoyed widespread use in engineering, but it is not convenient for crack problems as the region very close to crack tip is to be discretized with very fine mesh. However, as the body force method (BFM), requires only the boundary of the discontinuity (crack or hole) to be discretized it is easy versatile technique to analyze such problems. In the present work fundamental solution for concentrated load x + iy acting in the semi-infinite plate at an arbitrary point $z_0=x_0+iy_0$ is considered. These fundamental solutions are in complex form ${\phi}(z)$ and ${\psi}(z)$ (England 1971). These potentials are known as Melan potentials (Ramakrishna 1994). A crack in the semi-infinite plate as shown in Fig. 1 is considered. This crack is divided into number of divisions. By applying pair of body forces on a division, the resultant forces on the remaining 'N'divisions are to be found for which ${\phi}_1(z)$ and ${\psi}_1(z)$ are derived. Body force method is applied to calculate stress intensity factor for crack in semi-infinite plate. Also for the case of crack emanating from circular hole in semi-infinite plate radial stress, hoop stress and shear stress are calculated around the hole and crack. Convergent results are obtained by body force method. These results are compared with FEM results.