Partially stiffened elastic half-plane with an edge crack

In the present paper two contact problems referring to the partially stiffened elastic half-plane along its edge with a reinforcement (or stringer) either in the form of a rigid plate or a smooth rigid stamp, are considered. The half-plane contains an edge crack which is arbitrarily pressurized, and is perpendicular to the bounding edge of the half-space. It is assumed that the mid-point of the stringer is located in the axis of the crack. Each of the above two half-plane contact problems is first reduced to a system of two singular integral equations with fixed singularities. Then by employing the generalized method of integral transforms, this system is further reduced to a system of Wiener-Hopf equations that is equivalent to the Riemann matrix boundary value problem. Exact analytical solutions of the two problems are presented in series form. Asymptotic approximations for the stress intensity factor and the energy release rate at the crack tip are also given. Finally, numerical results for the contact stresses, crack opening displacements, stress intensity factor and crack energy are displayed.