Dynamic fracture analysis of a smoothly inhomogeneous plane containing defects by BEM

In this work, the dynamic interaction between defects of different types such as cracks and cavities in a smoothly inhomogeneous, elastic anisotropic plane subjected to incident SH-waves is investigated.Solution of the ensuing boundary-value problem is numerically realized using the non-hypersingular, traction boundary element method (BEM). By employing a special functional transform, the wave equation for inhomogeneous media is reduced to one with constant coefficients and the relevant frequency-dependent fundamental solution for graded anisotropic continua is obtained by the Radon transform. All surface discretizations are then done by standard collocation procedure with a parabolic type of approximation of all field variables. Next, validation of the numerical method is carried out through comparisons with available solutions for crack stress intensity factors (SIFs) and for cavity stress concentration factors (SCF).A detailed parametric study is then undertaken for a circular cavity interacting with a stationary, mode III crack in the presence of a propagating SH-wave. In sum, the key parameters of the simulation study are the characteristics of the incident wave, the geometry and configuration of the defects, the material inhomogeneity, and the dynamic interaction between the defects. The influence of all these key parameters on the dynamic SIF and SCF for different defects is finally discussed.