Abstract
Stress concentrations associated with circular holes in pure shear-loaded plates can be reduced by up to 13.5 per cent by introducing elliptical auxiliary holes along the principal stress directions. These holes are introduced in the areas of low stresses near the main circular hole in order to smooth the principal stress trajectories.
A systematic study based on univariate search optimization method is undertaken by using finite element analysis (FEA) to determine the optimum size and location for an auxiliary defence hole system. The results are validated using RGB (red-green-blue) photoelasticity.