Stress intensity factors for cracks emanating from a triangular or square hole in an infinite plate by boundary elements

This paper concerns stress intensity factors of cracks emanating from a triangular or square hole in an infinite plate subjected to internal pressure calculated by means of a boundary element method, which consists of constant displacement discontinuity element presented by Crouch and Starfied and crack tip displacement discontinuity elements proposed by the author. In the boundary element implementation the left or the right crack tip displacement discontinuity element is placed locally at corresponding left or right crack tip on top of the constant displacement discontinuity elements that cover the entire crack surface and the other boundaries. Numerical examples are included to show that the method is very efficient and accurate for calculating stress intensity factors of plane elasticity crack problems. Specifically, the numerical results of stress intensity factors of cracks emanating from a triangular or square hole in an infinite plate subjected to internal pressure are given.