ASYMPTOTICS FOR THIN ELASTIC LIGAMENTS WITH APPLICATIONS TO BODY FORCE AND THERMAL LOADINGS

A new singular asymptotic expansion of series, in which the coefficien ts of the expansions are given explicitly, is used to obtain the asymp totic behavior of the stress in the ligament of the classical Mindlin tunnel problem under gravity loading or thermal stress. The order of t he stress amplification was found to be O(1/root d), where d is the th ickness of the ligament. This was compared to other ligament problems with body force loading of thermal stress, in which the stress amplifi es as 1/d. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.