Disclinations in an anisotropic plate and their applications to fracture mechanics

Elastic fields of twist disclinations in an anisotropic elastic plate are derived in the context of Kirchhoff's plate theory. The solution is utilized to develop a new numerical method for general anisotropic cracked plates containing an arbitrary array of cracks under bending or twisting. Integral equations are constructed by simulating cracks as continuous distributions of disclinations. Using Gauss-Chebyshev integration formulas, the integral equations can be transformed into the form of algebraic equations, with which the disclination densities and the stress intensity factors associated with each crack tip can be computed. Numerical examples are provided for isotropic or orthotropic plates with one to three cracks.