Solid Mechanics-18

Stress Concentration
18.1 Plate with a circular hole
Consider a bar subjected to uniaxial loading. The bar has hole of radius as shown in the
figure. The exact stress analysis of this situation can be performed as follows

Equation of elastostatics after neglecting gravity can be written as

11 12 13

0
z1
z2
z3
21 22 23

0
z1
z2
z3

31 32 33

0
z1
z2
z3

These equations need to be solved in conjunction with Hookes law, which can be written as

T
D

u I
1
1 2

In the expanded version, we can write these equations as

11

E
1

u1

z1 1 2

33

E
1

u1 u2 u3
E

, 22

1
z1 z2 z3

u3

z3 1 2

23 32

u2

z2 1 2

u1 u2 u3

z1 z2 z3

u1 u2 u3
E u1 u2

, 12 21

21 z2 z1
z1 z2 z3

E u3 u1
E u2 u3

, 13 31

21 z1 z3
21 z3 z2

Substitution of these expression into the equations of elastostatics, we get a set of three second
order partial differential equations in three displacement variables. The boundary conditions are
1

t
t
T e3 0 at z3 or 33 0,13 0, 23 0 at z3
2
2
Here t is the thickness of the bar.

D
D
or 22 0,12 0, 32 0 at z2
T e2 0 at z2
2
2

11

P
L
, 21 0, 31 0 at z1
Dt
2

In addition, we have

T er 0 at r r
Equation of the circle is
z12 z22 r 2

The normal to the circle is

er

1
z1e1 z2e2
r

Hence the boundary condition can be written as

z1
z
11e1 21e2 31e3 2 22e2 12e1 32e3 0
r
r

This gives three equations

z
z1
z
z
z
z
11 2 12 0 , 1 21 2 22 0 , 1 31 2 32 0
r
r
r
r
r
r

These boundary conditions can be written in terms of components of the displacement vector field.
Thus we have equations as well as the boundary conditions in displacement components. The
problem is completely defined and can be solved to obtain displacement field. We can use these
displacement vector field to obtain strain tensor and stress tensor fields.
Such exercise has been performed and it is found that stress profile along the dotted
section is as shown in the figure. It is seen that the stress is lower than the average stress at the
edge, but increases as we approach the hole. The highest stress is at the point where the hole
begins. We define the stress concentration factor as the ratio

Failure can occur at the point where = . Hence the correct knowledge of is needed.
The values of are plotted in the figure below as a function of
=

18.2 Fillet in a flat plate

Here we have two portions of the bars of different width. These connected using a
circular fillet.

The stress concentration factor can also be obtained for this case using the following graph.

The stress concentration depends on both the ratio of widths of the two portions of the plate and
radius of the fillet.
18.3 Example: For = 35, determine the minimum plate thickness required if the
allowable stress is 125

Solution: Note that there are two places where we need to check the thickness. At the hole and at
the fillet.
At the hole = 12 , = 55, = 55 24 = 31
12
=
= 0.39
31
For this case = 2.26 . The average stress is given by

, =

2.26 35 103
=
=
= 20.4
31 103 125 106

At the fillet, = 40 , = 10
4

10

55

= 40 = 0.25 and = 40 = 1.375

From the graph = 1.70

, =

1.7 35 103
=
= 11.9
40 103 125 106

We choose the larger value of = 20.4