Stress intensity factors and crack-surface opening displacements for two cracks emanating from a circular hole in an infinite plate

The purpose of this paper is to research the problems of cracks at a circular hole, which is a kind of common crack configuration in aircraft structures. The Muskhelishvili complex variable function method and the truncated conformal mapping approach are combined to calculate the mixed-mode stress intensity factors and crack-surface opening displacements for two cracks with arbitrary length emanating from a circular hole in an infinite plate under remote uniform tension in an arbitrary inclination, and the calculated results are compared with the results from relevant literature. By fitting calculated stress intensity factors, the fitting equations for stress intensity factor calculation of two cracks emanating from a circular hole in an infinite plate under remote uniform tension are developed. The results show that the complex variable function method and the truncated conformal mapping approach used to calculate stress intensity factors and crack surface opening displacements can be applied to two-symmetric (or asymmetric) cracks emanating from a circular hole in an infinite plate. So the method is of good valuable for engineering fracture problems.