International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 106 (2016) 220230

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International Journal of Mechanical Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijmecsci

Stress concentration in nite metallic plates with regular holes

Mohammad Jafari n, Elahe Ardalani
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, P.O. Box 3619995161, Shahrood, Iran

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study involved the investigation of the stress distribution around regular holes in nite metallic
Received 12 October 2015 plates, assuming a plane stress state and uniaxial loading condition. The analytical solution of Musk-
Received in revised form helishvilis complex variable method was utilized. The plate was considered to be nite, isotropic and
27 November 2015
linearly elastic. A nite plate implied that the proportion of hole side to the longest plate side in tri-
Accepted 23 December 2015
Available online 30 December 2015
angular and square holes and the proportion of the circle diameter surrounding the other polygonals to
the longest plate side should be more than 0.2. The result from the present study necessitated the
Keywords: determination of the actual boundary between nite and innite plate for the plates with various holes.
Isotropic nite plate The nite area with a regular hole in z-plane is mapped onto nite area with unit circle in -plane using
Regular holes
the conformal mapping function. To calculate the stress function of a nite plate with regular hole, the
Analytical solution
stress functions in -plane were determined by superposition of the stress function in innite plate
Complex variable method
Uniaxial loading containing regular hole with stress function in nite plate without hole. Using least square boundary
collocation method and applying appropriate boundary conditions, unknown coefcients of stress
function were obtained. The inuence of parameters such as bluntness, rotation angle of hole, and hole
size as effective parameters on stress distribution were investigated. The obtained results were in
accordance with numerical results from ABAQUS software and other previous research on this issue.
From the results, the study of stress distribution in nite plates, using the theory of innite plates, could
lead to signicant errors.
& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Owing to the widespread use of plates in various industries,
these elements are of great importance. Thin plates are mostly
used in the construction of different kinds of cylinders, body parts
of industrial and nonindustrial machinery, space and marine
constructions, building, and military industries. Owing to its
numerous applications, a variety of geometric discontinuities with
different sizes and shapes is required. For example, the holes of the
doors and windows of the body of submarines and airplanes, the
mounting points for manometers and barometers on the furnace
wall, the junction points of plates by rivets and screws, the holes
which allow easy ow of cooling uids in turbine blades, and the
holes created to pass the electrical cables and hydraulic hoses in
some cases or facilitate the ow of fuel in the wing are useful
points of its application. In all these cases, holes in the material
serve a stress concentration points. In achieving the optimal
design and the ability to deal with mechanical failures, it is of great
necessity to understand in details, the stress distribution around
the holes. Therefore, in the design of structures, to achieve
n
Corresponding author.
convenient and efcient design, the study of the effects of geo-
metrical defects in structures is very important.
2. Literature review
Lots of researches have been carried out in order to study the
stress distribution in plates containing holes, and different meth-
ods such as numerical, analytic, and experimental were utilized.
Series of researches have been done on stress concentration of
innite isotropic and anisotropic plates containing holes. Complex
variable method for solving boundary value problems in two-
dimensional elasticity was rstly applied by Muskhelishvili [1] for
isotropic elastic plates. Shortly after, and applying a similar
method, Savin [2] studied stress concentration around different
holes for isotropic plates and stress concentration around circular
and elliptical holes for anisotropic plates. He calculated the stress
distribution around an equilateral triangle shaped hole with
rounded corner in innite plates, as well. An accumulation of all
previous researches on plates containing holes was conducted by
Peterson [3]. Development of the Muskhelishvilis method into
two-dimensional elasticity problems in anisotropic materials was
done by Eshelby et al [4], Stroh [5] and Lekhnitskii [6]. Wanlin [7]

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2015.12.022
0020-7403/& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M. Jafari, E. Ardalani / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 106 (2016) 220230
x m=0
y
b X
l
a
Fig. 1. Finite plate with rectangular hole subject to uniaxial loading.
y w()
x
b l
a
Fig. 2. Conformal mapping of nite plate with regular hole to nite plate with a
unit circle.
obtained An exact elasticplastic solution for the residual stress
and strain eld in a nite circular sheet having a cold-worked or
interference tted hole on the basis of J2 deformation theory
together with a modied RambergOsgood law. Many factors
inuencing the residual stresses were then analyzed.
Using Muskhelishvilis complex variable method, Theocaris and
Petrou [8] studied an innite isotropic plate containing the trian-
gular holes. They compared the results with experimental results.
With the expansion of Savins method, Daoust and Hoa [9] ana-
lyzed the triangular hole in innite isotropic and anisotropic plate
under uniaxial loading. Apart from the equilateral triangle, they
investigated other triangular holes with different aspect ratios.
They also studied the effect of the curvature of hole corner on the
stress distribution around the triangular hole. Using hyperbolic
functions, Gao [10] presented an accurate solution to calculate the
stress and displacement elds. He presented his results for ellip-
tical hole and biaxial loading. Motok [11] studied the effect of
bluntness for different holes in innite plate under axial loading.
Simha and Mohapatra [12] used a general mapping function to
calculate the stress distribution around the holes in an innite
isotropic plate. By applying a correction factor on the conformal
mapping, Lei et al. [13] obtained distributions of stress and dis-
placement around a rectangular hole with arbitrary dimensions in
innite isotropic plates under uni-axial loading.
Rezaeepazhand and Jafari [14] and [15] studied the stress dis-
tribution around different holes in innite isotropic and composite
plates. They investigated the effect of bluntness and hole orien-
tation on stress concentration factor. Asmar and Jabbour [16] cal-
culated stress distribution around rectangular hole in an innite
221
n=2 n=3 n =4 n=5
n=1,2,..
Fig. 3. The effect of parameter n on the shape of holes.
n=2
n=3
n=4
n=5
m=0 m=0.05 m=0.1 m=0.15
Fig. 4. The effect of parameter m on the hole shape.
anisotropic plate under tensile load. In this article, they proceeded
to study the effect of bluntness and load angle on stress analysis of
perforated plates. Sharma et al. [17] studied the stress distribution
around triangular hole in anisotropic plates under in-plane load-
ing. They investigated the effect of load angle, ber angle,
mechanical properties and bluntness on stress value created
around the hole.
Using Savin's method, Rezaeepazhand and Jafari [18] studied
the stress analysis of innite metallic plates with different hole
shapes. They considered the effect of parameters such as hole
shape, bluntness, and rotation angle of hole on stress concentra-
tion factor. By using Muskhelishvilis complex variable method,
Batista [19] calculated the stress distribution around the polygonal
holes with complex geometries in innite plates under tensile
load. Sharma [20] discovered a general solution to calculate stress
distribution around polygonal holes in innite isotropic plates
subjected to biaxial loading. He also studied the effect of hole
geometry and the pattern of loading on stress analysis of plates.
Most analytical methods used in previous studies to nd out
the stress distribution of innite plates were rather appropriate
but in practical engineering usage, the plates could not be con-
sidered innite in many cases. However it is of necessity to use
specic relations to study the stress distribution in nite plates
containing a central hole. Ogonowski [21] obtained the stress
distribution around circular hole in nite multilayer composites.
Using Lekhnitskeii's anisotropic plates theory, Lin and Ko [22]
studied nite multilayer composites with elliptical hole. By
applying the least square boundary collocation method, Woo and
Chan [23] suggested a stress function based on Muskhelishvilis
complex variable method to solve the problem of nite isotropic
plate with the number and arbitrary location of circular holes. Xu
et al. [24]obtained the stress distribution around elliptical hole in
nite multilayer composites. Most researches done on nite plates
containing holes were restricted to circular and elliptical ones. By
222 M. Jafari, E. Ardalani / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 106 (2016) 220230

using complex variable and least square boundary collocation Compatibility equation for isotropic materials in plane stress
methods, Pan et al. [25] modied the stress function presented by state in terms of stress function U is as follows:
Muskhelishvili and studied the stress distribution of nite plate
4 U 4 U 4 U
containing rectangular hole under uniaxial load. They used the 2 2 2 4 0 1
x4 x y y
mapping function presented by Sharma based on SchwarzChris-
toffel and studied nite isotropic plate containing rectangular hole. Muskhelishvili showed that the solution of Eq. (1) can be
The plate was under uniaxial tension and curvature of the hole written as follows:
was not investigated. Jafari and Ardalani [26] obtained stress dis-

U x; y Re zz z 2
tribution around triangular hole in nite isotropic plate under
plane loading. After nding U(x,y) in terms of the functions z and
Recently, Chauhan et al. [27] calculated the stress components z 0 z, the stress components in two-dimensional and
around a rectangular hole in a nite anisotropic plate subjected to simply-connected region is calculated as follows [1]:
in-plane loading. The stress functions were obtained using com-

x y 4Re 0 z 3
plex variable approach and least square boundary collocation
method. The effect of plate size, material properties, stacking  
y  x 2ixy 2 zz 0 z 4
sequence, hole geometry and loading conditions on the stress
concentration was also presented. where (z) and (z) are the analytical functions in terms of the
This research will try to study the stress distribution around the complex variable z. As shown in Fig. 2, by using a general con-
different holes in a nite metallic plate, using the complex variable formal mapping function as Eq. (5), the hole with different shapes
method and the expansion of research conducted by Pan et al. In in z-plane is mapped into a unit circle, while the corresponding
addition to hole geometry, the difference between this study and nite area external to the polygonal hole in z-plane is mapped into
that of Pan is that, in this article, by introducing an appropriate a nite area outside the unit circle in -plane.
mapping function, nite plates can be analyzed with different hole In Eq. (5), Since R, which is a positive and real number, affects
shapes. The function also necessitated the ease of study of various only the size of the hole and not the shape of the curve, its value
parameters such as rotation angle of hole and bluntness. Para- has no effect on stress distribution around the hole, hence it can be
meters considered in this paper include: rotation angle of hole, assumed that R 1. As observed in Fig. 3, integer n in the mapping
bluntness and the size of the hole to the size of the plate. function represents the shape of the hole. The hole sides are given
by n 1. Parameter m determines the bluntness factor and changes
the radius of curvature at the corner of the hole.
Using Eq. (6), the x and y coordinate values of the points on
3. Materials and methods hole boundary in z-plane in terms of the and coordinate values
in -plane is in the form of Eqs. (7) and (8). As shown in Fig. 4,
The problem to be investigated in this article is the isotropic different bluntness can be developed in hole corners with varying
plate containing regular hole, that is, the ratio of hole side length m. It should be noted that m 0 is equivalent to a circular hole. In
to the longest plate side is more than 0.2. However, the plate can this article, the ratio a/b equals to one. In the following equations
be considered nite. This investigation was conducted with the Re and Im are real and imaginary parts of the terms in brackets.
assumptions of plane stress state and the absence of body forces.  
  m
Also, the plate material was in its linear elastic region. As shown in z x iy R n 5

Fig. 1, the hole is located in the center of the plate, and because of
the traction-free boundary conditions on the edge of the hole, the  
stresses r and r at the cutout edge are zero and the circumfer-
ei cos i sin 6
ential stress is only remaining stress.
Different holes have arbitrary orientations one of such is that Y
the major axis is directed at angle with respect to the x-axis. The
plate is subject to uniaxial loading.

x
4. Basic relations

This study applied an appropriate mapping function and

Muskhelishvilis complex variable method in investigating the
stress distribution around the hole with different shapes in nite Fig. 6. The locations of selected points on internal boundary in -plane and
isotropic plates. external boundary in z-plane.

Fig. 5. Scheme of solution: (a) a nite plate with a unit circle hole in -plane; (b) an innite plate with a unit circle hole in -plane; and (c) a nite plate in -plane. [24].
 M. Jafari, E. Ardalani / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 106 (2016) 220230 223

40
0
Pan [24] preseent study

30
0

20
0
SCF

10
0

0
(degree)

-10
0

-20
0
0 20 40 60 80
8 100 1200 140 160 180

Fig. 7. Comparison of normalized stress around square hole obtained by present

analytical solution with Pan [24]. Fig. 8. Finite element model of a plate with triangular hole.

  

    m cos n 10
x Re R cos 7
n
 
FEM
M prresent study


    m sin n 8
y Im R sin 8
n
The stress components in the curvilinear coordinates (r,) 6

expressed by the mapping function are:

"  #
SCF

0 4
x y 4Re   9
0
2
 2i y  x 2ixy e2i
2
2          0
 
0 0
10
2 0

where -2
    (degree)
2 0   0
e2i  ;  
2 0 0 -4
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
 
  0 0     
0  ; 0
11 Fig. 9. Comparing normalized stress distribution around triangular hole in analy-
tical and numerical methods.

By solving the system of Eqs. (9) and (10), the stress compo- " #
2      0   
nents in terms of stress functions and conformal mapping function Im  
0
17
will be as follows:
2 0

"    !#
2 0     0 Therefore, the solution of plane stress problem is restricted to
x Re 0    0   12 nding two holomorphic functions () and () that satisfy the

boundary conditions. After nding the potential functions ()
"    !# and () and substituting them in Eqs. (15)(17), the stress com-
2 0     0
y Re     13 ponents were calculated. To calculate the stress in innite isotropic
0 0 plate, Savin [1] presented the potential functions () and () in
"  # terms of variable as follows:
    0
xy Im   14   X iY    
0    ln a1 0 18
2 1
"   #
2 0 2      0      X  iY    
Re    
0
15   ln b1 0 19
0
2 0 2 1
"   # where X and Y are components of the resultant vector of all
2 0 2      0    
Re    
0
16 external forces applied to the hole boundary. In the above equa-
0 2 0 tions, Logarithm term is omitted if the hole is free from external
224 M. Jafari, E. Ardalani / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 106 (2016) 220230

8 m=0 m=0.02 m=0.04

refrence[1
17] preesent study
m=0.06 m=0.08 m=0.1
7
7 m=0.12 m=0.14 m=0.16
6

5
6
SCF

SCF
4

3
5
2

1
4
0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0. 12 0.14
(degree)
m
Fig. 11. Variation of SCF with rotation angle of triangular hole in different bluntness
Fig. 10. Comparing dimensionless stress maximum around pentagonal hole in
and l/a 0.4.
different bluntness obtained by present analytic solution with Ref. [17].

According to Fig. 6, in order to calculate the unknown coef-

forces. For the plane stress problem is 3  4 and in the plane
cients in Eq. (23), equidistance collocation points are selected on
strain state is 31 
. a1 and b1 in the above equations are
unknown constants and is Poisson s ratio. The functions in Eqs. internal boundary (hole boundary) in -plane and on external
boundary (plate boundary) in z-plane. After specifying these
(18) and (19) are as follows:
points, corresponding points on internal boundary of regular hole
  X
1
n   X
1
0 n in z-plane and corresponding points on the external boundary of
0 a0n ; 0 bn 20
n1 n1
the nite plate in -plane can be obtained by using Eq. (5). Owing
to the presence of stress functions as functions of the complex
0
a0n and bn are unknown constants. Eqs. (18) and (19) can be variable , the locations of collocation points in -plane are nee-
 to be specied. The coordinates of the points in -plane are
used to analyze the stress in innite plates with different holes. ded
But in nite plates, in addition to hole geometry, the outer ; and in z-plane are zx; y. Selected points on internal
boundary conditions have signicant inuence on stress dis- boundary of unit circle in z-plane are dened as follows [24]:
tribution around the hole in the plate. Therefore, Eqs. (18) and (19)
2
cannot be used as presented above. As shown in Fig. 5, the stress 1; j  1 j 1; ; N in 24
N in
function of nite plate with circular hole in -plane is calculated
by adding the stress function of innite plate with circular hole in where N in is the number of the points selected on internal
-plane and stress function of nite plate without hole in -plane boundary of unit circle. By substituting the coordinate values
[24]. Therefore applying Laurent series in a multiply connected z(x,y) of selected points in z-plane into the left hand side of Eqs.
region, the stress function contains terms with positive and (7) and (8), using numerical solution, the coordinate values (,)
negative powers of . The terms with negative powers of are of corresponding points in z-plane are calculated. It should be
analytic on boundary of circular hole and its external area of cir- noted that, when using the least square boundary collocation
cular hole, and terms with positive powers of are analytic on method, for inner boundary conditions on unit circle in -plane,
external boundary of the plate and in the nite plate without hole the polar coordinate is used. Boundary conditions on hole
  boundary (internal boundary of nite plate) are as follows:
in -plane. Therefore, the stress functions and ( ) with
addition of the terms with positive and negative powers of in 0; 1 25
Laurent series, are represented with the formulas [24]:
The cartesian coordinate system is used for the outer boundary
  X
1
n
X
1
conditions of the rectangular plate in z-plane. The external
An Bn
n
21
n1 n0
boundary conditions of nite plate subject to different holes are as
follows [24]:
  X
1
Cn
n X
1
x cos 2 y sin 2 2xy sin cos n 26
  Dn
n
22
0 
n1 n0  
y  x sin cos xy cos 2  sin 2 n 27
The solution converge when the number of terms in the above
stress functions is chosen 25. Where coefcients An , Bn , Cn , Dn are where is the angle between outward normal of the outer
complex numbers considered as follows: boundary contours andx-direction. n and n are the normal stress
and tangential shear stress of the outer boundary contour. It is
An an1 ian2 ; Bn bn1 ibn2
noteworthy here that 0 is the stress applied to the external
C n cn1 icn2 ; Dn dn1 idn2 23 boundary of the plate. Based on least square collocation method,
an1 ; an2 ; bn1 ; bn2 ; cn1 ; cn2 ; dn1 ; and dn2 are unknown real con- the square residual over the boundary is as follows:
stants. Now, according to the aforementioned formulas, it is NinX
N ot 
necessary to calculate the unknown coefcients existing in Eq. 2 r 2 j ; j 28
j1
(23) in order to study the stress distribution around hole. For this
reason, least square boundary collocation method [22] is used. where N in indicates the number of the points selected on internal
 M. Jafari, E. Ardalani / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 106 (2016) 220230 225

Fig. 12. Stress distribution around triangular hole in rotation angle of: (a) zero (b):30.

Table 1 Table 2
desirable and undesirable SCF in different bluntness for triangular hole. Comparison of desirable SCF of nite plate with triangular hole in different ratios of
l/a with SCF in innite plate (l/a 0:01.
m Desirable SCF Undesirable CF
l/a Desirable SCF Percentage difference
0.02 4.2607 4.4571
0.06 4.4369 4.9566 0.01 3.4309 0
0.12 4.9991 5.9071 0.1 3.5 2.01
0.16 5.5773 6.7302 0.2 3.7188 8.39
0.4 4.7731 39.12
0.6 7.5526 120.13
9 l/a=0.01 l/a=0.1

8 l/a=0.2 l/a=0.3 16 m=0 m=0.02 m=0.04

l/a=0.4 l/a=0.5 m=0.06 m=0.08 m=0.1

7 14
m=0.12 m=0.14
6 12
SCF

5
SCF

10

4
8

3
6
2
0 0.04 0.08 0.12 0.16 0.2 4
m 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Fig. 13. Variation of SCF in terms of bluntness in different l/a for triangular hole.
(degree)
Fig. 14. Variation of SCF with rotation angle of square hole in different bluntness
boundary of unit circle, Not represents the number of selected and l/a 0.4.
points on external boundary of the plate in loading point, and

2 2 2 2
index j shows the number of selected points and
0; 0; 0; 0 30
   cn1 cn2 dn1 dn2
r 2 j ; j r 21 j ; j r 22 j ; j 29
Consequently, according to the aforementioned formulas, a

linear equation system is constructed such that the unknown
where r 1 j ; j and r 2 j ; j are residual of two boundary con-
constants can be obtained by its solution. By substituting these
ditions at collocation points on the boundary contours [24]. In
constants in Eqs. (21) and (22), two stress functions of and
order to minimize the square residual 2 , its derivatives with  
respect to unknown coefcients should be zero as follows:
were calculated and nally the stress components were
calculated using Eqs. (15)(17).

2 2 2 2
0; 0; 0; 0
an1 an2 bn1 bn2
226 M. Jafari, E. Ardalani / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 106 (2016) 220230

5. Validation of the results uniaxial load in the x-direction, and l/a 0.01. In this case, the
results of the present research are in close conformity with
To check the accuracy of the result according to Fig. 7, the Rezaeepazhand and Jafari. Good agreements between the results
results of the present analytic solution were compared with those obtained by the present analytical solution with other studies and
presented by Pan et al. From the gure, nite isotropic plate with methods show the accuracy and precision of the present analytical
square hole (m 0.225, l/a 0.4, 0) under uniaxial load in the y- solution.
direction has been considered. It is evident from the gure that the
result presented by Pan conrms the results of the present study.
In this paper, the normalized stress is the ratio of the maximum
amount of hoop stress at the edge of the hole () to the nominal
or applied stress. For a triangular hole, comparison between the
analytical and numerical results performed by nite element
method was conducted. In the case of the aspect ratio of the plate
12 l/a=0.01 l/a=0.1 l/a=0.2
(b/a equals to 1, m 0.2, 0 and l/a 0:4 were considered. Fig. 8
illustrates a typical nite element model of a nite plate with
triangular hole. S8R elements were chosen for metallic plates in 10 l/a=0.3 l/a=0.4 l/a=0.5
the ABAQUS nite element program. For each case, mesh sensi-
tivity was investigated and acceptable mesh chosen. From the 8
gure, for the triangular hole, regular mesh was used. Fig. 9
illustrates the comparison of the results of normalized stress

SCF
around the triangular hole obtained by analytical and numerical 6
methods. It is noteworthy here that, for isotropic materials, the
type of material has no effect on stress concentration. From the 4
gure, there is good agreement between these two solutions, and
this illustrates the accuracy in present analytical method.
The present solution can also be used to analyze metallic in- 2
nite plate with hole. In order to further evaluate the accuracy of
the results, in Fig. 10, the present solution has been compared with 0
the results of Rezaeepazhand and Jafari [17] for innite isotropic 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14
plate with pentagonal hole (m 0.05 and 0) subjected to m
Fig. 16. Variation of SCF with bluntness in different l/a for square hole.
Table 3
Range of rotation angle of square hole at which the stress is lower than
circular hole. Table 4
Comparison of desirable SCF of nite plate with square hole in different ratios of l/a
m Range of with SCF in innite plate (l/a 0:01.

0.02 25 r r 65 l/a Desirable SCF Percentage difference

0.04 31 r r 59
0.06 33r r 57 0.01 2.4744 0
0.08 36 r r 54 0.1 2.5603 3.47
0.1 38 r r 52 0.2 2.8433 14.90
0.12 50 r r 40 0.4 4.4175 78.52
0.14 42.5 r r 47.5 0.5 6.7502 172.80

Fig. 15. Stress distribution around square hole in rotation angle of: (a) zero (b):45.
 M. Jafari, E. Ardalani / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 106 (2016) 220230 227

6. Results and discussion stress distribution around regular hole that studying its effect on
stress distribution around the hole is essential. In addition to the
Stress concentrations in nite isotropic plates with central bluntness, the hole orientation is the other important parameters
holes are studied. A uniformly distributed tensile load is applied at that affect the stress distribution around the hole. By selecting the
a large distance from the hole. The hole can have arbitrary appropriate value for the hole orientation, the stress concentration
orientation such that the major axis of the hole is directed at angle factor can be decreased remarkably. For this reason the effect of
with respect to the horizontal axis. The varying parameters such these two parameters on SCF of triangular hole has been studied.
as the shape of the hole, rotation angle of the hole and bluntness Fig. 11, shows the effect of these parameters on the value of stress
and ratio of hole size to the plate are considered. In this study, concentration factor in triangular hole. For each hole, the stress
nite isotropic plates with non-circular holes are considered. In changes in terms of hole orientation () has a periodic behavior.
the following sections, effect of each parameter on SCF of these
special shaped holes is presented.
20
l/a=0.01 l/a=0.1
6.1. Triangular hole l/a=0.2 l/a=0.3
16 l/a=0.4 l/a=0.5
6.1.1. Effect of rotation angle of the hole
According to Eq. (5) and as illustrated in Fig. 4, parameter m l/a=0.6
affects the hole geometry directly, so that with changing in the 12
value of m, the radius of curvature at the corner of the hole, can be

SCF
controlled. Bluntness is one of the most signicant parameters in
8
11 m=0 m=0.02
m=0.04 m=0.06
m=0.08 m=.1 4

9
0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12
SCF

m
7
Fig. 19. Variation of SCF with bluntness in different l/a for pentagonal hole.

Table 5
5 Comparison of desirable SCF of nite plate with pentagonal hole in different ratios
of l/a with SCF in innite plate (l/a 0:01.

l/a Desirable SCF Percentage difference

3 0.01 4.1525 0
0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 0.1 4.2545 2.45
(degree) 0.2 4.5812 10.32
0.4 6.2245 49.89
Fig. 17. Variation of SCF with rotation angle of pentagonal hole in different 0.6 11.0022 164.95
bluntness and l/a 0.4.

Fig. 18. Stress distribution around pentagonal hole in rotation angle of: (a) zero (b):18.
228 M. Jafari, E. Ardalani / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 106 (2016) 220230

Period of these changes is different for holes with different shapes. Fig. 12 shows stress distribution around the triangular hole in
For triangular hole, the period of the variation of SCF with rotation desirable and undesirable rotation angles. Solid lines show the
angle is 60. According to this gure, stress concentration factor positive stresses around the hole and dash lines show the negative
increases with increasing the amount of bluntness. The lowest SCF ones. Table 1 presents the value of desirable and undesirable
occurs when the bluntness parameter is zero (m 0). As shown in stresses in some bluntness for triangular hole. Table 1 shows the
Fig. 3, m 0 is equivalent to a circular hole. Therefore, SCF of iso- importance of choosing the correct rotation angle in the analysis of
tropic plate with a circular hole is always less than SCF of plates with hole.
triangular hole.
According to Fig. 11, at any specic bluntness (m), the max-
imum and minimum SCF are called undesirable and desirable SCF,
respectively. 20
l/a=0.01 l/a=0.1
In design, the effective parameters should be selected in such a
way that the undesirable SCF is avoided. As observed in Fig. 11, the l/a=0.2 l/a=0.3
16
optimum rotation angle is 30 (desirable SCF) and the undesirable l/a=0.4 l/a=0.5
SCF occurs when the rotation angle is zero or 60. Therefore, for
l/a=0.6
designing the nite plate with triangular hole, rotation angles of
12
zero and 60must be avoided and rotation angle of 30 must

SCF
be used.
8
15 m=0 m=0.02 m=0.04
4
13 m=0.06 m=0.08 m=0.1

0
11 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12
m
SCF

9 Fig. 22. Variation of SCF with bluntness in different l/a for hexagonal hole.

7
Table 6
Comparison of desirable SCF of nite plate with hexagonal hole in different ratios of
5 l/a with SCF in innite plate l=a 0:01.

l/a Desirable SCF Percentage difference

3
0.01 3.7728 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
0.1 3.8571 2.23
(degree) 0.2 4.1271 9.39
0.4 5.4485 44.41
Fig. 20. Variation of SCF with rotation angle of hexagonal hole in different blunt-
0.6 8.8694 135.08
ness and l/a 0.4.

Fig. 21. Stress distribution around hexagonal hole in rotation angle of: (a) zero (b):18.
 M. Jafari, E. Ardalani / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 106 (2016) 220230
6.1.2. Effect of the ratio of hole size to plate
After obtaining the appropriate rotation angle and calculation
of the desirable SCF for triangular hole, it is necessary to study the
effect of the ratio of hole size to plate and compare the value of SCF
in nite and innite plates. For this reason, Fig. 13 illustrates the
variation of SCF in plate with triangular hole in terms of bluntness
for different ratios of l/a. in generating these results, the rotation
angle of hole has been considered 30 ( 30). It should be noted
that the desirable SCF occurs at rotation angle of 30. As it is
claried in the Fig. 13, for all ratios of l/a, the value of SCF increases
with increase in m. Also it is clear that for ratio of l/a less than 0.2,
increasing the ratio do not have signicant effect on variation of
stress concentration. Whereas for ratios greater than 0.2, by
increasing l/a, the value of stress concentration increases remark-
ably. For different ratios of l/a, Table 2 shows the values of SCF for
triangular holes with bluntness of 0.1 (m 0.1). According to the
results of the table, for the ratios less than 0.2, SCF related to the
nite plate is very close to SCF of innite plate. The percentage
error between two cases is less than 10%. Innite plate solution
can be used for these ratios. But for ratios greater than 0.2, the
percentage difference for the evaluation of SCF of the perforated
nite plate by using the theory of innite plates is in the range of
39120%.
6.2. Square hole
6.2.1. Effect of rotation angle of the hole
In this section, the effect of rotation angle and bluntness on
value of SCF for square hole is investigated. Fig. 14 shows the value
of SCF in terms of rotation angle of the hole in different bluntness.
For square hole, SCF change in terms of rotation angle is a periodic
function with a period of 90. Therefore, the results of Fig. 14 are
presented up to rotation angle of 90. According to Fig. 14, unlike
the triangular hole, SCF for some rotation angles decreases with
increasing m.
Also it shows that desirable SCF occurs in rotation angle of 45
and undesirable SCF occurs when the hole is oriented at angles
zero or 90. As shown in this gure, for a large range of rotation
angle, the desirable SCF of nite plate with square hole is less than
the SCF of similar plates with a circular hole (m 0). Therefore, the
circular hole is not the best shape for the hole in perforated plates.
By selecting the appropriate rotation angle, SCF less than the SCF
of circular hole can be achieved. This range is listed in Table 3. For
square holes, choosing m 0.08, the lowest SCF equal to 4.4175 is
achieved. Fig. 15 shows stress distribution around the square hole
in desirable and undesirable rotation angles.
6.2.2. Effect of the ratio of hole size to plate
Fig. 16 shows the variation of desirable SCF in plate with square
hole ( 45) in terms of bluntness for different ratios of l/a.
According to this gure in all ratios of l/a, for specic value of
m a0 the SCF is minimal. Therefore, the optimal value of bluntness
needs to be determined for each ratio of l/a. For different ratios of
l/a, Table 4 lists the values of SCF for square holes with bluntness of
0.1 (m 0.1). As it is clear, the SCF increases by increasing the ratio
of l/a. For ratio of l/a less than 0.2, the increase is insignicant. As
shown in Table 4, for ratios greater than 0.2, the percentage dif-
ference for the evaluation of SCF of the perforated nite plate by
using the theory of innite plates is signicant.
6.3. Pentagonal hole
6.3.1. Effect of rotation angle of the hole
For pentagonal hole, the variation of SCF in terms of rotation
angle is a periodic function with a period of 36. Fig. 17 shows the
effect of rotation angle on the value of SCF for pentagonal hole. As
229
shown in this gure, the desirable SCF occurs in rotation angle of
18 and undesirable SCF happens when the hole is oriented at
angles zero or 36. In this case, SCF changes with rotation angle are
similar to nite plate with a triangular hole. it is obvious that the
SCF increases with increase in m. Generally, SCF of pentagonal hole
is always greater than that in similar plates with a circular hole.
Fig. 18 shows stress distribution around the pentagonal hole in
desirable and undesirable rotation angles.
6.3.2. Effect of the ratio of hole size to plate
Fig. 19 illustrates the variation of desirable SCF of pentagonal
hole with hole bluntness in different ratios of l/a. similar to tri-
angular hole for all ratios of l/a, the value of SCF increases by
increasing the bluntness parameter (m). For different ratios of l/a,
Table 5 shows the values of SCF for pentagonal hole with bluntness
of 0.06. According to Table 5, For ratio of l/a less than 0.2, The
percentage difference between two cases is less than 10%. The use
of the innite plate solution can be acceptable for these ratios.
Whereas for ratios greater than 0.2, the percentage difference for
the evaluation of SCF of the perforated nite plate by using the
theory of innite plates reaches to 164% for l/a 0.6.
6.4. Hexagonal hole
6.4.1. Effect of rotation angle of the hole
For hexagonal hole, the variation of SCF with rotation angle has
a periodic behavior with a period of 60. For this reason in Fig. 20,
the variation of SCF is investigated up to rotation angle of 60. As
shown in this gure, the desirable SCF occurs in rotation angle of
30 and undesirable SCF happens when the rotation angle is 60.
Therefore, the optimal rotation angle that should be considered in
design of perforated plate with hexagonal hole under uniaxial
stress is 30. Also, the rotation angle of zero or 60 should be
avoided in design. As illustrated in this gure, by selecting the
appropriate values for rotation angle and bluntness parameter (m),
SCF less than the SCF of circular hole can be achieved. For example,
for m 0.02 and in the range of 2337 for rotation angle, SCF of
hexagonal hole is less than that in similar plates with circular hole
(m 0). Fig. 21 shows stress distribution around the hexagonal
hole in desirable and undesirable rotation angles.
6.4.2. Effect of the ratio of hole size to plate
The variation of desirable SCF in plate with hexagonal hole
( 30) in terms of bluntness for different ratios of l/a is shown in
Fig. 22. In all ratios of l/a, for specic value of m a0 the SCF is
minimal. For different ratios of l/a, Table 6 shows the values of SCF
for hexagonal holes with bluntness of 0.06 (m 0.06). As it is clear,
the SCF increases by increasing the ratio of l/a. For ratio of l/a less
than 0.2, the increase is insignicant. But, for ratios greater than
0.2, the percentage difference reaches 135% in some cases. In this
condition it is necessary to use the solutions concerning nite
plates.
7. Conclusion
Knowing the high stress concentration and its location around
a hole is of practical importance in designing engineering struc-
tures. In designing the perforated plates, effective parameters can
be selected in order to achieve minimum SCF. In this study, an
analytical solution based on complex variable method is employed
to analyze the stress distribution in nite plate with a regular hole.
The effect of bluntness, rotation angle of hole, hole size and hole
shape (triangular, square, pentagonal and hexagonal) as signicant
parameters on stress distribution around the holes are studied.
The results presented herein indicate that due to uniaxial loading,
230 M. Jafari, E. Ardalani / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 106 (2016) 220230
the SCF can be signicantly varied by changing the hole shape,
bluntness and rotation angle of hole. In nite plate containing
square and hexagonal holes, for a wide range of bluntness, the
desirable SCF are less than the desirable SCF of similar plates with
a circular hole.
In this paper, results show that for some ratios of l/a, the cal-
culation of stress distribution in nite plates, using the theory of
innite plates, can lead to signicant errors.
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