The concentration of stress and strain in finite thickness elastic plate containing a circular hole

The elastic stress and strain fields of finite thickness large plate containing a hole are systematically investigated using 3D finite element method. It is found that the stress and strain concentration factors of the finite thickness plate are different even if the plate is in elasticity state except at notch root of plate surface. The maximum stress and strain do not always occur on the mid plane of plate. They occur on the mid plane only in thin plate. The maximum stress and strain concentration factors are not on mid plane and the locations of maximum stress and strain concentration factors are different in thick plate. The maximum stress and strain concentration factors of notch root increase from their plane stress value to their peak values, then decrease gradually with increasing thickness and tend to each constant related to Poisson’s ratio of plate, respectively. The stress and strain concentration factors at notch root of plate surface are the same and are the monotonic descent functions of thickness. Their values decrease rapidly and tend to each constant related to Poisson’s ratio with plate thickness increasing. The difference between maximum and surface value of stress concentration factor is a monotonic ascent function of thickness. The thicker the plate is or the larger the Poisson’s ratio is, the larger the difference is. The corresponding difference of strain concentration factor is similar to the one of stress concentration factor. But the difference magnitude of stress concentration factor is larger than that of strain concentration factor in same plate.