GREEN'S FUNCTIONS IN FRACTURE MECHANICS

The use of Green's functions in the determination of stress intensity factors is described and applied to the solution of problems in fracture mechanics. Methods of obtaining further Green's functions from existing ones are presented. It is shown that several commonly used simple methods of determining stress intensity factors can be expressed in terms of approximate Green's functions. Many important Green's functions are presented and some of these are used to solve several problems of practical importance to the aerospace industry e.g. cracks in stiffened sheets and cracks in pin-loaded lug-joints.