Uniform stress state inside a non-elliptical inhomogeneity near an irregularly shaped hole in antiplane shear

Abstract

Analytic continuation and conformal mapping techniques are applied to establish that the state of stress inside a non-elliptical elastic inhomogeneity can remain uniform despite the presence of a nearby irregularly shaped hole when the surrounding matrix is subjected to uniform remote antiplane shear stresses. The hole boundary is assumed to be either traction-free or subjected to antiplane line forces. Detailed numerical results are presented to demonstrate the resulting analytical solutions. Our results indicate that in maintaining a uniform stress distribution inside the inhomogeneity, it is permissible for the stresses in the matrix to exhibit either a square root singularity at sharp corners of a hole boundary or a high level of stress concentration at rounded corners of a hole.