Practical Analysis of Stress Raisers in Solid Structures

Two noncorresponding mesh techniques that augment the finite element method are developed for the analysis of stress raisers in solid structures. Both work by tying the boundaries of a refined mesh at a stress raiser to the coarse displacement field of the surrounding structure. Algorithms are presented that utilize isoparametric shape functions to express the refined mesh boundary displacements as a function of the coarse mesh displacements. Stress concentration factors for two common stress raisers are calculated, using both methods, and compared to accepted values.