A NUMERICAL-ANALYTICAL ALGORITHM FOR SOLVING CRACK PROBLEMS

An algorithm is proposed which uses the variational method of boundary elements and an analytic consideration of the singularities of the stress field in the neighbourhood of the tip of the crack and makes use of a singular solution of the Lame equation. The formulation of the crack problem considered takes into account all types of strains: normal cleavage, and transverse and longitudinal shear. The specified vector of the normal stresses on the surface of the crack is represented in the form of the sum of a regular component and a singular component, due to the presence of a singular point-the tip of the crack, leading to the presence of higher-order singularities of the stresses compared with existing algorithms.