Fracture mechanics analysis of geometrically nonlinear shear deformable plates

This paper presents boundary integral equations for fracture mechanics analysis of geometrically nonlinear shear deformable plates. A radial basis function and dual reciprocity method are utilized to evaluate the derivative terms and the domain integrals that appear in the formulations, respectively. Numerical examples of the clamped and simply supported plates containing a center crack subjected to uniform transversal loadings are presented. Displacement extrapolation technique is used to compute the stress intensity factors (SIFs). Stress intensity factors of mode I for plate bending and membrane problems are presented. The normalized stress intensity factors in membrane significantly increase after few increments of the load while the normalized stress intensity factors in bending decrease. Less displacement and rotational constraints in cracked plates under uniform transversal loadings will raise the stress intensity factors. The bending stress intensity factors of a central crack in clamped square plate were found to be the highest values compared to those for clamped non-square plates.