Boundary element analysis of flat cracked panels with adhesively bonded patches

Adhesively bonded patch repairs for cracked finite sheets are analysed by the boundary element method. The interaction between the plate and the patch on a repaired sheet is modelled as a distribution of forces which include in-plane, out-of-plane and two moment body forces. The coupled boundary integral formulations of shear deformable plate (Mindlin theory) and two-dimensional plane stress elasticity are presented. Stress intensity factors, three for the bending problem and two for the membrane problem, are evaluated from crack opening displacements. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. Comparison with two-dimensional solutions demonstrate the significance of the bending loads on the stress intensity factors.