Boundary element analysis of cracked panels with mechanically fastened repair patches

In this paper, lap joints and mechanically attached repairs containing cracks are analysed by the boundary element method. A coupled boundary integral formulation of shear deformable plate and two-dimensional plane stress elasticity is utilized to allow the modelling of bending and membrane forces. Stress intensity factors, three for the bending problem and two for the membrane problem, are evaluated from crack-opening displacements. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method. The stress intensity factor solutions are shown to be dominated by the bending effect.