Transient analysis of collinear cracks under anti-plane dynamic loading

The problem of a homogeneous linear elastic body containing multiple collinear cracks under anti-plane dynamic load is considered in this work. The cracks are simulated by distributions of dislocations and an integral equation relating tractions on the crack planes and the dislocation densities is derived. The integral equation in the Laplace transform domain is solved by Gaussian-Chebyshev integration quadrature. The dynamic stress intensity factor associated with each crack tip is calculated by a numerical inverse Laplace scheme. The proposed method was applied to calculate the stress intensity factors for M equally spaced cracks of identical length subject to impact loading with M = 1 similar to 4. Comparison of the numerical result for a single crack with the analytic solution shows that the present method is highly accurate. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of ICM11