Alternative boundary integral equations for fracture mechanics in 2D anisotropic bodies

An alternative dual boundary element formulation for generally anisotropic linear elastic twodimensional bodies is presented in this contribution. The formulation is based on the decomposition of the displacement field into the sum of a vector field satisfying the anisotropic Laplace equation and the gradient of the classic Airy stress function. By suitable manipulation of the integral representation of the anisotropic Laplace equation, a set of alternative integral equations is obtained, which can be used in combination with the displacement boundary integral equation for the solution of crack problems. Such boundary integral equations have the advantage of avoiding hyper-singular integrals.