A cracked beam or plate transversely loaded by a stamp

In this paper the problem of an infinite elastic beam or a plate containing a crack is considered. The medium is loaded transversely through a stamp which may be rigid or elastic. The problem is a coupled crack-contact problem which cannot be solved by treating the crack and contact problems separately and by using a superposition technique. First the Green's functions for the general case are obtained. Then the integral equations for a cracked infinite strip loaded by a frictionless stamp are obtained. With the question of fracture in mind, the primary interest in the paper has been in calculating the stress intensity factors. The results are given for a rigid flat stamp with sharp edges and for an elastic curved stamp. The effect of friction at the supports on the stress intensity factors is also studied and a numerical example is given.