Numerical solutions of hypersingular integral equation for curved cracks in circular regions

In this paper, numerical solutions of a hypersingular integral equation for curved cracks in circular regions are presented. The boundary of the circular regions is assumed to be traction free or fixed. The suggested complex potential is composed of two parts, the principle part and the complementary part. The principle part can model the property of a curved crack in an infinite plate. For the case of the traction free boundary, the complementary part can compensate the traction on the circular boundary caused by the principle part. Physically, the proposed idea is similar to the image method in electrostatics. By using the crack opening displacement (COD) as the unknown function and traction as right hand term in the equation, a hypersingular integral equation for the curved crack problems in the circular regions is obtained. The equation is solved by using the curve length coordinate method. In order to prove that the suggested method can be used to solve more complicated cases of the curved cracks, several numerical examples are given.