A NEW WEIGHT FUNCTION APPOACH USING INDIRECT BOUNDARY INTEGRAL METHOD

Abstract

A new weight function approach to determine SIFs (stress intensity factors) using the indirect boundary integral method has been presented. The crack opening displacement field was represented by one boundary integral term in the form of a single-layer potential whose kernel was modified from the fundamental solution. The proposed method enables the calculation of SIFs using only one SIF solution, without any modification for the crack geometries symmetric in the two-dimensional plane, e.g. a center crack in a plate with or without an internal hole, double edge cracks, circumferential cracks or radial cracks in a pipe. The application procedure for this variety of crack geometries is very simple and straightforward with only one SIF solution. The necessary information in the analysis is two reference SIFs. The analysis results using several examples verified that the present closed-form solution was in good agreement with those of the literature and applicable to various crack geometries.