A hypersingular boundary integral equation for a class of antiplane multiple crack problems for inhomogeneous elastic materials

An antiplane multiple crack problem is considered for inhomogeneous isotrop ic elastic materials. The problem is reduced to a boundary integral equatio n involving hypersingular integrals. The boundary integral equation may be solved numerically using standard procedures. Some crack problems for a par ticular inhomogeneous material are considered in detail and the stress inte nsity factors are obtained in order to assess the effect of the inhomogenei ty on the stress field near the crack tips. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.