The boundary element analysis of cracked stiffened sheets, reinforced by adhesively bonded patches

This paper presents a formulation based on the Dual Boundary Element Method and on the Dual Reciprocity Method for the analysis of thin cracked metal sheets to which thin metal patches and sti¤eners are adhesively bonded. The sti¤ened cracked sheet is modelled with the Dual Boundary Element Method. Adhesive shear stresses are modelled as actionÐreaction body forces exchanged by the sheet and patches. The Dual Reciprocity Method is used to avoid the discretization of the patches attachment domain into internal cells. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the e¦ciency and robustness of the method developed. The examples include sheets with embedded or edge cracks, sti¤ened or not, to which single or double patches are adhesively bonded.