Author(s)

D. W. A. Rees, Bahai, S. Taylor

Brunel University, London, UK.
School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, London, UK.

The photo-elastic method has been employed to determine stress concentration factor (SCF) for square plates containing holes and inclined slots when the plate edges are subjected to in-plane tension combined with compression. Analyses given of the isochromatic fringe pattern surrounding the hole provides the SCF conveniently. The model material is calibrated from the known solution to the stress raiser arising from a small circular hole in a plate placed under biaxial tension-compression. These results also compare well with a plane stress FE analysis. Consequently, photo-elasticity has enabled SCF’s to be determined experimentally for a biaxial stress ratio, nominally equal to –4, in plates containing a long, thin slot arranged to be in alignment with each stress axis. The two, principal stresses lying along axes of symmetry in the region surrounding the notch are separated within each isochromatic fringe by the Kuske method [1]. FE provides a comparable full-field view in which contours of maximum shear stress may be identified with the isochromatic fringe pattern directly. The principal stress distributions referred to the plate axes show their maximum concentrations at the notch boundary. Here up to a fourfold magnification occurs in the greater of the two nominal stresses under loads applied to the plate edges. Thus, it is of importance to establish the manner in which the tangential stress is distributed around the slot boundary. Conveniently, it is shown how this distribution is also revealed from an isochro-matic fringe pattern, within which lie the points of maximum tension and maximum compression.

Stress Concentration; Photoelasticity; Isochromatics; Finite Elements; Vertical and Horizontal Slots; Bi-Axial Stress

D. Rees and B. Taylor, "Stress Concentrations for Slotted Plates in Bi-Axial Stress," Engineering, Vol. 4 No. 2, 2012, pp. 69-75. doi: 10.4236/eng.2012.42009.