Evaluation of stress intensity factors of a center cracked curved plate in the presence of crack flank stop drill holes

The use of stop drill holes is one of the most convenient methods for reducing the stress intensity factors and crack growth rate. The efficiency of stop drill holes on the crack growth retardation depends on the amount of reduction in stress intensity factors. The curved plates are frequently used in engineering structures. Therefore، in this paper، by using the finite element method، the effects of configurations and diameters of crack flank holes on the variations of stress intensity factor are studied for a curved plate. The numerical results indicate that the location and the size of stop drill holes affect the stress intensity factors which is mainly due to their interaction with the crack tip stresses. Closer distances to the crack tip and larger diameters of the flank holes provide more reduction in the stress intensity factors. Also، the finite element results show that the use of stop drill hole method for the curved plates has the same efficiency as that of the flat plates.