Interactions between cracks and circular holes in two-dimensional linear elastic media

For a better understanding of the behaviour of cracked materials, we propose a numerical tool for linear elastic two-dimensional cracked media. The number of singularities induced by cracks indicates that the pseudo-tractions technique can be used to study brittle materials such as rocks. The developments presented in this paper extend this technique to finite media containing cracks and circular cavities, including the crack closure effect, and take into account the friction that may exist between the crack faces. The accuracy of the technique is demonstrated by comparison between the results of this pseudo-tractions technique and results found in the literature for some simple geometries. The effects of the parameters such as interactions, porosity and friction coefficient introduced at the mesoscopic scale are illustrated by some examples which consider the elastic domain of a cracked medium and the propagation of cracks under compression. The validity of the approximation and the limits of the proposed model are also discussed