Comparative study of the crack-contact problem for a set of collinear cracks in a semi-infinite half plane or an infinite strip

ASME PDProceedings of the 1996 3rd Biennial Joint Conference on Engineering Systems Design and Analysis, ESDA. Part 7 (of 9) --1 July 1996 through 4 July 1996 -- Montpellier, Fr --This paper considers the plane elasticity problem of a semi-infinite half plane and an infinite strip containing a set of collinear cracks some of which may be forced to open by rigid wedges of various forms. First, the two problems are treated, separately, by a joint use of the integral transform and the Green's function techniques. Then, representative problems from both cases are solved numerically, the results of which are compared with those found by a suitable application of the finite element and the boundary element methods through the use of two widely used software programs. The results of the two methods for a certain geometry and loading coincided with a perfect match for each of the numerous examples treated. Some of the numerical results are presented in graphical form