Fracture mechanics analysis of curved stiffened panels using BEM

A dual boundary element method is developed for a analysis of reinforced cracked shallow shells. Boundary integral equations are derived from the Betti's reciprocal theorem for a cracked shallow shell with transverse frames and longitudinal stiffeners. The effect of frames and stiffeners are treated as a distribution of line body forces. The radial basis function is used to transform domain integrals to boundary integrals. Stress intensity factors are evaluated from crack opening displacements, The effect of curvature on the stress intensity factors is illustrated by numerical examples. Three examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy of this method compared with solutions obtained using the finite element method. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.