Dislocations and internal loading in a semi-infinite elastic medium with surface stresses

This paper presents analytical solutions for shear and opening dislocations in an elastic half-plane with surface stresses by using the Gurtin–Murdoch continuum theory of elastic material surfaces. The fundamental solutions corresponding to buried vertical and horizontal loads are also presented. Fourier integral transforms are used in the analysis. It is found that a characteristic length parameter that depends on the surface and bulk elastic moduli exists for this class of problems, and it represents the influence of surface stresses on the bulk elastic field. Selected numerical results are presented to demonstrate the influence of surface stresses on the bulk stress field. The fundamental solutions presented in this study can be used to develop boundary integral equation and other methods to analyze complicated fracture and boundary-value problems associated with nano-scale structures and soft elastic solids.