Strengthening of Circular Holes in Plates Under Edge Loads

In this paper, stress distributions are determined around strengthened circular holes in plates submitted to edge loads at infinity. Various proportions of circular strengthenings are considered, and three conditions of applied edge loads are investigated; uniform hydrostatic stress, uniform shearing stress, uniform axial stress. Stress distributions are found by methods of theory of elasticity, and the results are given in the form of stress-concentration factors. In order to reduce the results to a common basis, the stress-concentration factors have been defined by the ratio of the critical stress, computed by the distortion-energy theory, to the critical stress at infinity, which is the critical stress in the plate without hole.