Uniform stress fields inside multiple inclusions in an elastic infinite plane under plane deformation

Abstract

Multiple elastic inclusions with uniform internal stress fields in an infinite elastic matrix are constructed under given uniform remote in-plane loadings. The method is based on the sufficient and necessary condition imposed on the boundary value of a holomorphic function that guarantees the existence of the holomorphic function in a multiply connected region. The unknown shape of each of the multiple inclusions is characterized by a conformal mapping. This work focuses on a major large class of multiple inclusions characterized by a simple condition that covers and is much beyond the known related results reported in previous works. Extensive examples of multiple inclusions with or without geometrical symmetry are shown. Our results showed that the inclusion shapes obtained for the uniformity of internal stress fields are independent of the remote loading only when all of the multiple inclusions have the same shear modulus as that of the matrix. Moreover, specific conditions are derived on remote loading, elastic constants of the inclusions and uniform internal stress fields, which guarantee the existence of multiple symmetric inclusions or multiple rotationally symmetrical inclusions with uniform internal stress fields.