INTERACTIONS BETWEEN CRACKS AND CIRCULAR HOLES IN 2-DIMENSIONAL LINEAR ELASTIC MEDIA

For a better understanding of the behaviour of cracked materials, we p ropose a numerical tool for linear elastic two-dimensional cracked med ia. The number of singularities induced by cracks indicates that the ' 'pseudo-tractions'' technique can be used to study brittle materials s uch as rocks. The developments presented in this paper extend this tec hnique to finite media containing cracks and circular cavities, includ ing the crack closure effect, and take into account the friction that may exist between the crack faces. The accuracy of the technique is de monstrated by comparison between the results of this ''pseudo-traction s'' technique and results found in the literature for some simple geom etries. The effects of the parameters such as interactions, porosity a nd friction coefficient introduced at the mesoscopic scale are illustr ated by some examples which consider the elastic domain of a cracked m edium and the propagation of cracks under compression. The validity of the approximations and the limits of the proposed model are also disc ussed.