Modelling cracks in finite bodies by distributed dislocation dipoles

The method of continuous distribution of dislocations is extended here to model cracks in finite geometries. The cracks themselves are still modelled by distributed dislocations, whereas the finite boundaries are represented by a continuous distribution of dislocation dipoles. The use of dislocation dipoles, instead of dislocations, provides a unified formulation to treat both simple and arbitrary boundaries in a numerical solution. The method gives a set of singular integral equations with Cauchy kernels, which can be readily solved using Gauss–Chebyshev quadratures for finite bodies of simple shapes. When applied to arbitrary geometries, the continuous distribution of infinitesimal dislocation dipoles is approximated by a discrete distribution of finite dislocation dipoles. Both the stress intensity factor and the T -stress are evaluated for some well-known crack problems, in an attempt to assess the performance of the methods and to provide some new engineering data.