Periodic array of staggered planar cracks in an anisotropic elastic medium

The problem of determining the elastic displacements and stresses in an infinite anisotropic medium containing a periodic array of staggered planar cracks is considered. It is reduced to a system of Hadamard finite-part singular (hypersingular) integral equations with the crack-opening displacements as unknown functions. The integral equations may be solved numerically by a collocation technique. Numerical results for specific cases involving isotropic and transversely isotropic materials are obtained.