A new analytical method for stress analysis of finite plates with circular cutout

This paper investigates the stress distribution around a circular hole in a finite isotropic plate. The main problem in this analysis is how to apply the boundary conditions at the cutout boundary, which isrepresented in the Polar coordinate and at the plateouter edges, which is represented in the Cartesian coordinate. To solve this problem, the stress components are calculated from the solution of the Biharmonic equation in the Polar coordinate. Theboundary conditions at the cutout edge are applied to the stress components which are written in the Polar coordinate. In order to apply the boundary conditionsat the plate edges, a boundary integral which is obtained from the principle of virtual work is used. By substituting the displacement field and the stress components into the integral, the unknown constantsare calculated. The variation of circumferential stress around the cutout is obtained for different hole sizes and different uniform and non-uniform loading conditions.