A crack bridging model for bonded plates subjected to tension and bending

A crack bridging model is presented for analysing the tensile stretching and bending of a cracked plate with a patch bonded on one side, accounting for the effect of out-of-plane bending induced by load-path eccentricity inherent to one-sided repairs. The model is formulated using both Kirchhoff-Poisson plate bending theory and Reissner's shear deformation theory, within the frameworks of geometrically linear and nonlinear elasticity. The bonded patch is represented as distributed springs bridging the crack faces. The springs have both tension and bending resistances; their stiffness constants are determined from a one-dimensional analysis for a single strap joint, representative of the load transfer from the cracked plate to the bonded patch. The resulting coupled integral equations are solved using a Galerkin method, and the results are compared with three-dimensional finite element solutions. It is found that the formulation based on Reissner's plate theory provides better agreement with finite element results than the classical plate theory. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.