• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.969-980
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• 2003

The interactions between curved cracks are examined in an orthotropic plate and the effects of rectilinear anisotropy on the stress intensity factors are analyzed. The finite element alternating method (FEAM) is used in this study to get the stress intensity factors for the multiple curved cracks. To obtain analytical solutions, which is necessary in FEAM, the curved cracks are modeled as continuous distributions of dislocations, and integral equations are formulated for unknown dislocation density functions to satisfy the given resultant forces on the crack surfaces. Several basic problems are solved to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method and it can be found that present results show good agreements with the previously published results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.85-95
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• 2010

In this paper, numerical solution of the singular integral equation for the multiple curved branch-cracks is investigated. If some quadrature rule is used, one difficult point in the problem is to balance the number of unknowns and equations in the solution. This difficult point was overcome by taking the following steps: (a) to place a point dislocation at the intersecting point of branches, (b) to use the curve length method to covert the integral on the curve to an integral on the real axis, (c) to use the semi-open quadrature rule in the integration. After taking these steps, the number of the unknowns is equal to the number of the resulting algebraic equations. This is a particular advantage of the suggested method. In addition, accurate results for the stress intensity factors (SIFs) at crack tips have been found in a numerical example. Finally, several numerical examples are given to illustrate the efficiency of the method presented.