European Journal of Mechanics A/Solids 37 (2013) 69e78

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European Journal of Mechanics A/Solids

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Stress concentration analysis for countersunk rivet holes in orthotropic plates

Feras Darwish a, *, Ghassan Tashtoush b,1, Mohammad Gharaibeh b, 2
a
b

Aeronautical Engineering Department, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030, Irbid 22110, Jordan
Mechanical Engineering Department, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030, Irbid 22110, Jordan

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 4 March 2012
Accepted 29 April 2012
Available online 15 May 2012

This research investigates the in-plane stress concentration factor (SCF) in countersunk rivet holes in
orthotropic laminated plates under uniaxial tension load. Finite element analysis (FEA) using ANSYS
software is used to build and mesh the geometry of a plate containing a countersunk hole, dene the
boundary and loading conditions, run the analysis and obtain the SCF results. The effect of several
geometric and material parameters such as plate thickness, straight-shank radius, countersunk angle,
countersunk depth, plate width, and the laminate ply angles on the SCF is also investigated. Finally,
multi parameter t and factorial analyses are applied to establish the relationships between the SCF and
the various geometric and material parameters, and to formulate a general equation for the SCF. Based
on the results, it is found that the values of the SCF obtained by means of the formulated equation are
within 7% of the nite element (FE) results for 96% of the runs and that the maximum overall error is
less than 14%.
2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Countersunk hole
Stress concentration factor
Finite element analysis
Orthotropic plates

1. Introduction
In industrial applications, rivets are used to join components
that are made of isotropic or anisotropic materials. In contrast to
the isotropic materials, the mechanical, physical and thermal
properties of anisotropic materials such as brous composites are
directional, which complicates the stress analysis in the neighborhood of holes.
Numerous studies on the stress concentration of two dimensional (2-D) plates with circular holes subjected to several loading
types are reported in the literature and summarized by Pilkey and
Pilkey (2008). Three dimensional (3-D) FE results of the SCF were
presented by Shivakumar and Newman (1992) for plates with
circular straight-shank holes subjected to remote tension. The
results showed that the maximum SCF lies at the mid-thickness of
the isotropic plate and drops near the free surface. Wu and Mu
(2003) performed FEA on uniaxial and biaxial loaded isotropic
and orthotropic plates with circular holes and examined the SCF of
holes in a plate structures and pressure vessels. Kotousov and
Wang (2002) presented analytical solutions for (3-D) stress

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 962 2 720 1000x22735, 962 79 995 6787

(mobile); fax: 962 2 720 1000.
E-mail addresses: fhdarwish@just.edu.jo (F. Darwish), gtash@just.edu.jo
(G. Tashtoush), mohd_gh@hotmail.com (M. Gharaibeh).
1
Tel: 962 2 720 1000x22570, 962 79 562 0645 (mobile).
2
Tel.: 962 79 951 4353 (mobile).
0997-7538/$ e see front matter 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.euromechsol.2012.04.006

distribution around typical stress concentrators in an isotropic

plate of arbitrary thickness. Few years later, Kotousov et al. (2010)
showed that ignoring the plate thickness by the classical plane
solutions could lead to an error in the assessment of the stress
state especially in the neighborhood of notches. Li et al. (2000)
investigated through FEA the elastic notch-root elds in plates
with different thicknesses and notch congurations subjected to
uniaxial tension. Berto et al. (2004) presented an analytical solution for the stress eld at a notch root in a plate of arbitrary
thickness. They studied the effects of plate thickness and notch
conguration on the stress distributions, the out-of-plane stress
constraint factor, and the strain energy density. She and Guo
(2007) used FEM to analyze the through-the-thickness variation
of the SCF along the wall of elliptic holes in isotropic plates subjected to a remote tensile stress.
Few studies considered the SCF of countersunk holes in isotropic
plates. Wharely (1965) determined the local stresses experimentally by the birefringent-plastic-coating method on Aluminum
plates. Shivakumar et al. (2007), and Bhargava and Shivakumar
(2007, 2008) presented two detailed equations for the stress and
strain concentration factors in countersunk holes of isotropic plates
subjected to tensile loading. Darwish et al. (2012) introduced
a modied parametric equation for the SCF in isotropic plates.
Raghavan and Raju (2009) discussed the stress concentration due
to countersunk holes in adhesively bonded layered Aluminum
through a 3-D FE model to estimate the location and the magnitude
of the maximum SCF.

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F. Darwish et al. / European Journal of Mechanics A/Solids 37 (2013) 69e78

Nomenclature
b
Cs
e
E
G
Kt
Kh,o
Kss,o
KCs,o
Kqc,o
r
t
w
x,y,z
1,2,3

n
qc
qp
so

straight shank depth

countersink depth
element size at the hole
Youngs modulus
shear modulus
theoretical stress concentration factor
a parameter that accounts for the effect of
plates width and the ply angle on Kt
a parameter that accounts for the effect of
plates thickness and the ply angle on Kt
a parameter that accounts for the effect of
countersink depth and the ply angle on Kt
a parameter that accounts for the effect of
countersink angle and the ply angle on Kt
straight shank radius
plate thickness
plates half-width
global coordinate system
principle coordinate system
Poisons ratio
countersink angle
ply angle
remote stress

the
the
the
the

Lekhnitskii (1963) presented an equation to approximate the

SCF in thin innite orthotropic plates with circular hole. This
equation was used to verify the experimental results of Pipes et al.
(1979) and Toubal et al. (2005). Whitney and Nuismer (1974)
introduced two fracture criteria known as the point stress criterion (PSC) and the average stress criterion (ASC) to predict the
uniaxial tensile strength of a composite laminate with a circular
hole. Potti et al. (1999) made an improvement on the accuracy of
failure stress predictions by the (PSC) and (ASC). In (2009), Jen
et al. used a modied PSC to predict the notch strength of
composite laminates at elevated temperatures. The predictions
agreed well with the experimental results. Hong and Crews (1979)
presented a 2-D FEA for nite width orthotropic laminate with
a circular hole subjected to uniaxial loading. They also discussed
the effect of width and length to radius ratios on the stress
concentration. Konish and Whitney (1975) developed three
equations to calculate the SCF in orthotropic plates with a circular
hole. Tan (1987, 1994) modied the PSC and derived several
formulas for the SCF for orthotropic plate with an elliptical hole.
Jain and Mittal (2008) presented FE study on both isotropic and
orthotropic plates with central circular hole subjected to transverse static loading to study the effect of the hole diameter to plate
width ratio on the SCF.
The main objectives of the present research are to perform
stress analysis around countersunk holes in orthotropic plates and
to develop a parametric equation for the SCF as function of the
material properties and the geometric parameters.

Fig. 1. Conguration of countersunk hole.

G12 6.9 GPa, G23 3.7 GPa, G13 6.9 GPa, n12 0.27, n23 0.54 and

n13 0.27, Daniel and Ishai (2006).

3. Approach and verication of the analysis

Extensive 3-D FEA is conducted to obtain the SCF at the countersunk hole at different geometric and material parameters. The
SCF is dened as the ratio of the maximum in-plane stress in the
load direction (x-direction) at the notch edge to the nominal
applied stress.

Kt

smax
so

Based on the obtained FE results, factorial and multi parameter

t analyses are performed to develop an equation for the SCF.
Factorial analysis, which is a method used to describe the variability
among uncorrelated variables, is implemented to determine the
relative signicance of the geometric and material parameters that
will be used in formulating the dimensionless parameters of the
SCF equation.
3.1. Finite element modeling
ANSYS Release 13.0 was used to construct the FE model. A
general exible FE code was written using the ANSYS Parametric

2. Geometry and materials

The conguration of the plate containing a countersunk hole
and subjected to a tensile load is shown in Fig. 1.
An orthotropic material system of eight plies of carbon/epoxy
(AS4/3501-6) with stacking sequence [qp]2s is considered for the
analysis of the present study as shown in Fig. 2. The mechanical
properties of a single lamina of unidirectional (AS4/3501-6) in the
principal directions are: E1 149 GPa, E2 10.3 GPa, E3 10.3 GPa,

(1)

Fig. 2. The stacking sequence of the orthotropic laminate.

F. Darwish et al. / European Journal of Mechanics A/Solids 37 (2013) 69e78

71

3.90

Kt

3.88

3.86

3.84

3.82
Fig. 3. The meshed conguration of the quarter model with the boundary and loading
conditions.

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

r/e
Fig. 4. Mesh renement results.

Design Language (APDL). This code was used to dene the material
system, to generate the geometric model, the FE model and to run
the analysis of the problem. Only 3-D hexahedron elements,
specied as solid45 in ANSYS package, were chosen to generate the
mesh in the volumes through the strategic selection of the isoparametric mapping concept. In order to achieve accurate results
for the SCF in the neighborhood of the hole, mesh gradation was
engineered to produce a very ne mesh near the hole and course
mesh elsewhere as shown in Fig. 3.
A mesh renement study was also conducted to optimize the FE
solution. The geometric parameters associated with the mesh
renement study were as follows: t/r 2, Cs/t 0.4, l/r 15 and w/
r 15 at qc 100 . Five FE models with different mesh sizes were
considered for the mesh renement as shown in Table 1.
For each mesh level the maximum SCF (Kt) was obtained and
compared with the next ner mesh. The results of the study are
shown in Fig. 4. Apparently, the Kt value of model 3 with the radiusto-element size ratio at the hole (r/e 25.3) has reached
a convergence value with an error less than 0.01% from the
asymptote. This error is very small; accordingly model 3 was
considered throughout the analysis of the present FE model.
The boundary conditions of the quarter model were imposed by
constraining the x-displacement at x 0 and the y-displacement at
y 0 to account for the planes of symmetry of the full model. A
uniform remote tensile stress (so) was applied at the plane x l.
Fig. 3 shows the details of the boundary and loading conditions of
the quarter model.
In the FE model, the properties of the 8-plies of the orthotropic
angle ply laminate were homogenized. This type of homogenization only alters the normal-shear coupling terms and not the other
components. Therefore, the plate is treated as one thick ply with
homogenized orthotropic properties that depends on the ply angle.
The homogenization technique was found used in the literature by
many researchers including Whitney and Nuismer (1974), Pipes
Table 1
The mesh size specications of the ve FE models of the mesh renement study.
Model #

Number
of elements

Number of
nodes

Radius-to-element
size ratio at the hole (r/e)

1
2
3
4
5

1380
5100
25200
48960
144000

1848
6160
28158
53475
152971

12.7
19.0
25.3
38.0
44.3

et al. (1979), Tan (1987), Soutis and Hu (2000) and Darwish and
Shivakumar (2011).
3.2. Verication analysis
The verication analysis was performed by independently
generating FE models by means of the prescribed element type and
meshing procedures for certain cases in the literature and by
reproducing their results.
3.2.1. Thin innite orthotropic plate with a circular hole
The SCF values (KN) in an innite orthotropic plate with
a circular hole were obtained from the present FE model for
different material systems and different lay-ups and compared
with the results of Lekhnitskiis equation (1963) in Table 2.
It is shown in Table 2 that the FE results are in good agreement
with the results of Lekhnistkiis equation.
3.2.2. Thin nite orthotropic plate with a circular hole
Here, the values of the SCF (Kh,o) become function of the plates
width in addition to the materials orthotropy. The FE results of the
SCF versus the radius-to-width ratio are compared with the results
from Tans equation (1994). Fig. 5 presents the results of the
comparison.
It is shown in Fig. 5 that the FE results are in good agreement
with the results of Tans equation. In the next sections, FE and
formulation analyses will be conducted to obtain the maximum SCF
around countersunk holes in orthotropic plates.
Table 2
Comparison between KN from the FE results and Lekhnistkiis equation for thin
innite orthotropic plate with a central circular hole.
Material

Angle (qp)

FE Results

Lekhnistkii Equation

%Error

Aluminum
Carbon Epoxy

Isotropic
0
10
20
60
70
0
30
0
30

3.00
6.06
5.24
4.04
1.99
2.01
3.67
3.10
6.37
4.61

3.00
6.32
5.34
3.94
1.92
2.00
3.65
3.01
6.57
4.54

0.0
4.1
2.0
2.6
3.7
0.7
0.5
2.9
3.1
1.5

E-glass Epoxy
Carbon Polyimide

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F. Darwish et al. / European Journal of Mechanics A/Solids 37 (2013) 69e78

5.2

Table 3
Material parameter levels for factorial analysis.

5.0
4.8

ho

4.6

Material parameter

Low

High

Ex/Ey
Ex/Ez
Ex/Gxy
Ex/Gyz
Ex/Gxz

0.5
0.5
1.67
1.67
1.67
0.1
0.6

5.0
5.0
10
10
10
0.7
3.0

nxy
nyz/nxz

4.4
4.2
4.0

FE
Tan Eq.

3.8
3.6
0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

r/w
Fig. 5. Comparison between the FE results and Tans equation.

4. Formulation analysis of the stress concentration factor

As introduced earlier, the SCF is function of the plates geometric
parameters and the material orthotropy which by itself carries 9
different material properties. In this study, factorial analysis
(Montgomery (2000), Montgomery and Runger (2006), Dar et al.
(2002)) was performed to eliminate any insignicant parameter
from the formulation analysis. Nonlinear regression and multi
parameter t analyses were also conducted on different sets of the
FE results to put them on tted forms of equations.
The formulation approach of the present study is, in general,
similar to that presented by Shivakumar et al. (2007) except for the
involvement of the material properties in the nal SCF equation of
the present study due to the orthotropic nature of the material of
the plate.
The nal Kt equation is suggested to be expressed in the
following form:

Kt Kh;o  Kss;o  KCs;o  Kqc;o

(2)

where Kh,o, Kss,o, KCs,o and Kqc,o are dimensionless parameters that
account for the effect of the width of the plate, the thickness, the
countersink depth and the countersink angle respectively
combined with the effect of the material orthotropy on the value of
Kt. The subscript o indicates for an orthotropic plate.
4.1. Innite thin orthotropic plate with a hole
In the mechanics of isotropic materials, the SCF of an innite
thin plate with a circular hole is 3. This baseline value is not valid
when the plate is made of an orthotropic material due to its
directional properties. In the present study, the plate is made of
Carbon/Epoxy laminate with an orthotropic layup of [qp]2s. Here,
the ply angle, qp, is as a key parameter in determining the orthotropic mechanical properties of the plate and accordingly the
baseline value of the SCF at the hole (KN). To nd an expression for
KN in terms of the 9 orthotropic properties, 7 nondimensional
material parameters (Ex/Ey, Ex/Ez, Ex/Gxy, Ex/Gyz, Ex/Gxz, nxy, nyz/nxz)
were rst tested through factorial analysis to examine their inuence on the value of KN. Two levels, low and high, for each
nondimensional material parameter were chosen for this study as
listed in Table 3.

The values of the low and high levels were selected carefully to
cover a wide range of each material parameter. One hundred and
twenty eight ANSYS runs were performed at different combinations
of the nondimensional parameters for the geometry of w/r 15, t/
r 1, Cs/t 0.5 and qc 100 . The FE results from these runs were
analyzed through Minitab software. The factorial analysis was
performed, and the results are shown in Fig. 6.
It can be seen in Fig. 6 that among the 7 dimensionless material
parameters, only three parameters (Ex/Ey, Ex/Gxy and nxy) have
major effect on KN. The parameter Ex/Gxz is considered to have
a minor effect on KN while the remaining parameters nearly
have no effect on KN. Based on these results, it can be stated that
KN can be expressed in terms the planar 2-D properties (Ex, Ey,
Gxy and nxy) even though the analysis and geometry are three
dimensional.
A 2-D analytical equation for KN was derived by Lekhnitskii
(1963) for an innite thin orthotropic plate with a central hole,
this equation is shown below:

KN

v
#
u "s
u
E
E
x
x
 nxy
1 t2
Ey
2Gxy

(3)

Since the outcome of the factorial analysis is in good agreement

with Lekhnitskiis equation, Equation (3) will be used to calculate
KN which will be representing the material orthotropy in the
formulation of Kh,o, Kss,o, KCs,o, Kqc,o and eventually Kt. A comparison
between the 3-D FE results of KN and the results of Equation (3)
was previously presented in Table 2.
4.2. Formulation of Kh,o
The rst step in the formulation procedure is to account for the
width effect on the SCF by making the plate nite and the hole
centered. This change in the geometry will be represented by the
geometric parameter (r/w). The combined effect of (r/w) and (KN)
on the SCF will be introduced through the dimensionless parameter
(Kh,o). Fig. 7 shows through FE results the effect of r/w and qp on the
value of Kh,o.
By examining the best t of the curves of Fig. 7, it was found that
Kh,o is in a polynomial relationship with each of r/w and KN. Many
mathematical expressions were suggested and evaluated. It was
found that the form which holds the least error is expressed as:

Kh;o

3 X
3
X

Aij

j0 i0

 r i
w

j
KN

where:

a00
6 a01
Aij 6
4 a02
a03

a10
a11
a12
a13

a20
a21
a22
a23

3
a30
a31 7
7
a32 5
a33

(4)

F. Darwish et al. / European Journal of Mechanics A/Solids 37 (2013) 69e78

73

Fig. 6. Factorial analysis results for the effect of material parameters on KN

The coefcients of the matrix Aij, except a0j, were computed

through multi-parametric tting of the FE results by using the
Minitab software. The coefcients a0j were forced to be 0,1,0,0 in
order to have Kh,o equals to KN when the plate becomes innite (r/
w 0). The coefcients, as extracted from Minitab, are:

0:00
6 1:00
6
Aij 4
0:00
0:00

0:11
1:00
0:09
0:01

14:04
12:41
1:84
0:02

3
15:75
20:39 7
7
3:10 5
0:06

A comparison between the results of Equation (4) and the FE

results was conducted at non-tting values of r/w and KN. The
comparison is shown in Fig. 8.
It can be seen that the results of the equation of Kh,o are in good
agreement with the FE results with an overall maximum error
of 3.1%.

4.3. Formulation of Kss,o

By increasing the thickness of the plate, the hole changes to
a straight shank hole and Kt is expected to become dependent of
Kss,o in addition to Kh,o (Kt Kh,o*Kss,o). The value of Kss,o at any (t/r)
and KN was obtained by dividing Kt from FE by Kh,o from the
previous section. The results of Kss,o at different t/r and qp are shown
in Fig. 9.
It can be clearly seen in the above gure that Kss,o always equals
to 1.0 regardless to the values of (t/r) and qp. Accordingly, it can be
stated that Kss,o does not contribute to Kt and therefore it is dropped
out from the formulation analysis. Based on this result, Equation (2)
will be modied to the new form written below:

Kt Kh;o  KCs;o  Kqc;o

(5)

In fact, the above result was not surprising and it absolutely

agrees with the outcomes of the factorial analysis presented earlier
which has revealed that the orthotropic properties in the z-

8
4.0

7
3.5

p=30

FE
Equation (4)

h,o

3.0
K

h,o

FE

p=50

5
4

r/w=0.40
3

2.5

p=80

r/w=0.25
r/w=0.10

2.0

1
0

20

40

60

80

Ply angle p
Fig. 7. The effect of r/w and qp on Kh,o.

100

120

1.5
0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

r/w

Fig. 8. Comparison between Kh,o from Equation (4) and FE results.

0.5

74

F. Darwish et al. / European Journal of Mechanics A/Solids 37 (2013) 69e78

2.0

Kss,o

1.5

1.0

p = 10o

0.5

p = 20 o
p = 40
p = 60

Fig. 10. Results of the factorial analysis for KCs,o equation.

0.0
0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

The error in Table 4 was calculated as:

t/r


%Error

Fig. 9. The effect of (t/r) on Kss,o at different qp.

direction (Ez, Gxz, Gyz, nxz and nyz) have a negligible effect on the
SCF.

In this section, the straight shank hole is modied to a countersunk hole which in fact adds a degree of complexity to the
analysis. Having a sinking depth through a portion of the hole
allows the stresses to ow through the thickness of the plate
around the hole. Therefore, the sinking depth represented by (Cs/t)
is expected to affect the value of Kt. Here comes the signicance of
formulating an expression for KCs,o that integrates the role of the
geometry of the countersunk hole and the material orthotropy in
determining the Kt value. Factorial analysis was performed to
determine the geometric parameters that directly affect the value
of KCs,o which can be obtained by dividing the Kt value from the FE
solution by Kh,o from Equation (4). The results of the factorial
analysis are shown in Fig. 10.
Here it can be stated that a formula for KCs,o must include r/w, t/r
and Cs/t in addition to KN. A general equation of KCs,o is expressed in
the form shown below:

KCs;0


 100

(8)

Based on Table 4, it can be stated that the results of the developed equation of KCs,o match very well with the FE results.
4.5. Formulation of Kqc,o

4.4. Formulation of KCs,o

 b 1  
 b2  2
t
Cs
t
Cs
KN c1 a2
1 a1
KN c2
r
r
t
t
 b3  d1
 r d2
t
Cs
a3
KN c3
t
r
w

Kt;eq  Kt;FE
Kt;FE

The nal part of the formulation procedure of Kt is to nd an

appropriate expression of the last parameter Kqc,o. The general
expression of Kqc,o was written in a similar form to that presented
by Shivakumar et al. (2007) with the inclusion of the material
parameter (KN) in the slope (m) of Equation (9);



Kqc;o 1 m qc  100

The slope (m) in the above equation is expressed in equation

(10).

m At=rl1 KN l2

This form was chosen to meet the limiting geometric conditions,

for example, Equation (6) goes to 1 when Cs/t 0 (straight shank
hole) or t/r 0 (thin plate). The tuning parameters (as, bs, cs, and
ds) were computed using the Minitab software. The resulting
equation of KCs,o is:

 0:45  
 0:74  2
t
Cs
t
Cs
KN 1:14 0:03
KCs;0 10:16
KN 1:87
t
t
r
r
 1:65  1:47
 r 1:77
t
Cs
1:76
KN 0:56
7
t
r
w
A comparison between the FE results of KCs,o and Equation (7) at
different geometric congurations and different ply angles is
shown in Table 4.

(10)

where A, l1 and l2 are functions of (Cs/t) and are expressed in the

following equations after performing multi-parametric tting by
means of Minitab:

(9)

 2

 
Cs
Cs
Cs
0:008
0:01
0:015
t
t
t

(11)

Table 4
Comparison between KCs,o from Equation (7) and FE.
r/w

t/r 1
KCs,o
FE

t/r 2
KCs,o
Eq. (7)

Cs/t 0.1, qp 0
0.1
1.122 1.122
0.25 1.136 1.132
0.4
1.137 1.134
Cs/t 0.25, qp 45
0.1
1.120 1.084
0.25 1.135 1.095
0.4
1.136 1.112
Cs/t 0.50, qp 80
0.1
1.126 1.171
0.25 1.166 1.200
0.4
1.251 1.245

t/r 4

%Error

KCs,o
FE

KCs,o
Eq. (7)

%Error

KCs,o
FE

KCs,o
Eq. (7)

%Error

0.0
0.4
0.3

1.168
1.181
1.187

1.164
1.169
1.176

0.3
1.0
0.9

1.213
1.229
1.239

1.222
1.236
1.241

0.8
0.5
0.2

3.2
3.5
1.9

1.175
1.203
1.237

1.148
1.155
1.206

2.3
4.2
3.8

1.253
1.319
e

1.192
1.278
e

4.9
3.1
e

4.0
2.8
0.5

1.205
1.293
e

1.236
1.325
e

2.6
2.5

1.333
1.590
e

1.345
1.622
e

0.9
2.0

F. Darwish et al. / European Journal of Mechanics A/Solids 37 (2013) 69e78

75

Table 5
Comparison between Kqc,o from Equation (9) and FE at r/w 0. 1, t/r 2 and qp 40 .

qc

Cs/t 0.1

80
90
100
110
120

Cs/t 0.25

Cs/t 0.5

Kqc,o FE

Kqc,o Eq. (9)

%Error

Kqc,o FE

Kqc,o Eq. (9)

%Error

Kqc,o FE

Kqc,o Eq. (9)

%Error

0.9815
0.9910
1.0000
1.0106
1.0215

0.9777
0.9888
1.0000
1.0112
1.0223

0.4
0.2
0.0
0.1
0.1

0.9651
0.9829
1.0000
1.0220
1.0429

0.9489
0.9744
1.0000
1.0256
1.0511

1.7
0.9
0.0
0.4
0.8

0.9465
0.9734
1.0000
1.0356
1.0725

0.9438
0.9719
1.0000
1.0281
1.0562

0.3
0.2
0.0
0.7
1.5

l1

 2

 
Cs
Cs
Cs
4:8
6
10:7
t
t
t

(12)

l2

 
 2

Cs
Cs
Cs
0:6
0:9
1
t
t
t

(13)

According to Equation (9), one can notice that Kqc,o 1 at

qc 100 (reference countersink angle) and that m 0 and Kqc,o 1

at Cs/t 0 (straight shank hole) or at t/r 0 (thin plate).

A comparison between Equation (9) and the FE results of Kqc,o
was performed over a wide range of (Cs/t), (t/r) and KN. This
comparison has shown a good agreement between the FE results
and the analytical results. Part of this comparison is shown in
Table 5 in which the error was calculated using Equation (8).
After obtaining and testing the expressions of the dimensionless
parameters of Kt, Equation (5) can be used to calculate the SCF of
a countersunk hole in an orthotropic plate.
5. Results and discussion
5.1. Results
The results of three cases of an orthotropic plate with a countersunk hole obtained from Equation (5) and the FE solutions are
considered in this section. The three cases are: (1) An innite plate
with a countersunk hole at qc 100 ; (2) An innite plate with
a countersunk hole with qc ranging from 80 to 120 ; (3) A nite
width plate with a countersunk hole.

5.1.1. Innite plate with countersunk hole at qc 100

In this special case r/w 0 (innite plate), therefore, Kh,o KN
and Kqc,o 1 (qc 100 ). Accordingly, the SCF equation becomes
(Kt KN*KCs,o). In this equation Kt is a function of t/r, Cs/t and qp only.
The results of Kt versus qp at different values of t/r and Cs/t were
obtained from Equation (5) and FE. Figs. 11 and 12 show comparisons between Equation (5) and the FE results at (t/r 1 and Cs/
t 0.5), and (t/r 4 and Cs/t 0.1) respectively.
It can be seen in Figs. 11 and 12 that the analytical and FE results
are in a good match with an error becoming commonly at
maximum at qp between 40 and 50 .
5.1.2. Innite plate with a countersunk hole
This case is one step more general than the previous one since
the countersink angle (qc) varies between 80 and 120 . Therefore,
the SCF equation becomes (Kt KN*KCs,o*Kqc,o). Here in this equation Kt is function of t/r, Cs/t, qp and qc. The results of Kt from
Equation (5) and FE over a wide range of all variables were obtained. Table 6 presents the Kt results from Equation (5) and the FE
solutions versus the ply angle qp at qc 80 , 100 and 120 .
Once more, the error is at maximum when the ply angle ranges
from 40 to 50 .
5.1.3. Finite width plate with a countersunk hole
This case represents the most general case of the SCF since all
the geometric parameters r/w, t/r, Cs/t, and qc; and the ply angle qp
contribute to the Kt equation (Kt Kh,o*KCs,o*Kqc,o). As there are 5
independent variables affecting the value of Kt, a very large number
of Kt values as obtained from Equation (5) and FE-based data are
compared. Figs. 13e17 show a synthesis of the overall results.
8

10
9

FE
Equation (5)

FE
Equation (5)

7
5

Kt

Kt

4
3

2
1

0
0

10

20

30

40
50
60
Ply angle p

70

80

90

100

Fig. 11. The stress concentration factor Kt versus ply angle qp (t/r 1, Cs/t 0.5, r/
w 0).

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Ply angle p
Fig. 12. The stress concentration factor Kt versus ply angle qp (t/r 4, Cs/t 0.1, r/
w 0).

76

F. Darwish et al. / European Journal of Mechanics A/Solids 37 (2013) 69e78

10

Table 6
Comparison between Kt from Equation (5) and FE at Cs/t 0. 25 and t/r 1.

qp qc 80

qc 100

Kt FE Kt Eq. (5) %Error Kt FE Kt Eq. (5) %Error Kt FE Kt Eq. (5) %Error

7.35
6.25
4.56
3.25
2.67
2.22
2.01
2.08
2.33
2.56

7.85
6.41
4.49
3.14
2.31
1.99
2.01
2.10
2.34
2.58

6.8
2.6
1.6
3.4
13.5
10.5
0.0
1.2
0.4
0.8

7.71
6.52
4.71
3.33
2.75
2.29
2.02
2.10
2.36
2.61

8.02
6.55
4.6
3.23
2.37
2.05
2.07
2.16
2.41
2.65

3.9
0.5
2.4
3.0
13.5
10.4
2.2
2.9
2.2
1.6

8.03
6.82
4.89
3.43
2.83
2.35
2.06
2.13
2.41
2.7

8.18
6.69
4.70
3.31
2.44
2.10
2.13
2.22
2.48
2.72

1.8
1.9
3.9
3.5
13.8
10.3
3.5
4.2
2.8
0.7

Fig. 13 shows the relationship between Kt and r/w at two

different values of Cs/t. It can be seen that the results of Equation (5)
are in good agreement with the FE results. Also it is observed that as
the plate becomes narrower the Kt value increases.
The effect of plates thickness on the SCF is presented in Fig. 14 at
different ratios of r/w.
Fig. 15 presents the effect of Cs/t on Kt at different values of r/w.
The relationships between Kt and the countersink angle qc at
different Cs/t values and between Kt and the ply angle qp are shown
in Figs. 16 and 17 respectively.
In summary of the comparison study between the results of the
developed equation and the FE results, it was found that the error in
Kt is within 7% for more than 96% of the FE runs (1098 out of 1140
runs) with an overall maximum error less than 14%.
The location of the maximum SCF was found at the side of the
countersunk hole (90 from the direction of the load application) at
the edge between the sinking depth and the straight shank portion
of the hole. Figs. 18 and 19 present the SCF variations through the
thickness of the hole at different Cs/t and qc values respectively.
It can be seen in Fig. 18 that the location of the maximum SCF
varies with changing the value of Cs/t (different edge locations). On
the other hand, Fig. 19 shows a xed location for the maximum SCF
because Cs/t is constant (xed edge location).
5.2. Discussion
By inspecting the results of Kt at the different values of r/w, t/r,
Cs/t, qc and qp it was found that by increasing the value of any of the

r/w = 0.25

8
Kt

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90

FE
Equation (5)

qc 120

r/w = 0.1
7

5
0

t/r
Fig. 14. The stress concentration factor Kt versus t/r (Cs/t 0.1, qc 110 and qp 0 ).

nondimensional geometric parameters (r/w, t/r, Cs/t, and qc) the

value of Kt would increase. First, when r/w increases, the edges of
the plate become closer to the hole. Accordingly, the force lines will
be compressed and the SCF will increase. Similarly, increasing (t/r)
or (Cs/t) while maintaining the other parameters xed, the sinking
depth of the countersunk hole will increase. This change in
geometry tends to have more force lines changing its direction
downward towards the root of the sinking surface which turns to
increases the SCF. The direct proportionality between Kt and qc is
referred to the fact that as qc increases the countersunk hole further
deviates from the straight shank hole and therefore Kt increases.
Finally, as shown in the results of the previous section, the trend of
the Kt versus the ply angle qp can be described as descending,
reaching a minimum value at qp 50 e60 , and then ascending. To
explain this behavior, the effect of the ber orientation on the stress
ow around the hole and on determining the innite width of the
plate (the width after which the edges of the plate would have no
effect on the SCF) is discussed hereinafter. For an innite plate,

12

10
r/w = 0.25

FE
Equation (5)

11

Cs /t = 0.5

FE
Equation (5)

10
r/w = 0.1
8
Kt

Kt

9
8

Cs /t = 0.1

7
6

6
5
0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

r/w
Fig. 13. The stress concentration factor Kt versus r/w (t/r 1, qc 90 and qp 0 ).

5
0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3
Cs/t

0.4

0.5

0.6

Fig. 15. The stress concentration factor Kt versus Cs/t (t/r 1, qc 100 and qp 0 ).

F. Darwish et al. / European Journal of Mechanics A/Solids 37 (2013) 69e78

10

77

4.0

FE
Equation (5)

3.5

9
3.0

Cs /t = 0.25

2.5

K FE

Kt

Emax= 3.5%
7

Cs /t = 0.1

2.0
1.5
1.0

Cs/t = 0.10
Cs/t = 0.25
Cs/t = 0.50

6
0.5
0.0

5
90

100
110
Countersink angle c

120

0.0

130

Fig. 16. The stress concentration factor Kt versus the countersink angle (qc) (r/w 0.1,
t/r 1 and qp 0 ).

increasing (qp) gradually from 0 (bers parallel to the load direction) to 90 (bers perpendicular to the load direction), the
modulus in the load direction Ex decreases from maximum to
minimum and the lateral modulus Ey increases from minimum to
maximum. This change in the mechanical properties reduces the
concentration of the axial stresses (sx) at the sides of the hole. In
addition, the in-plane shear modulus and Poisons ratio, Gxy and nxy,
reach their peak values at 45-degrees and near 25-degrees
respectively which also affect the Kt vs. the ply angle distribution.
On the other hand, for xed r/w, stiffening the lateral direction of
the plate increases the edge effect, or in other words, the width at
which the plate becomes innite increases. In summary of this
point, increasing qp from 0 to 90 , the SCF decreases due to the
change of the mechanical properties of the plate, and on the other
hand increases due to the increasing edge effect. This counteract
effect is responsible for the descending-ascending trend of the Kt
versus qp curve.

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

z/t
Fig. 18. Stress concentration factor variation through the thickness of the hole (r/
w 0.1, t/r 1 and qc 100 ).

3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0

c = 80

c = 100o
0.5

c = 120o

0.0
0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

z/t

10
9

Fig. 19. Stress concentration factor variation through the thickness of the hole (r/
w 0.1, t/r 1 and Cs/t 0.25).

FE
Equation (5)

At the end of the discussion, it can be stated that the SCF can be
minimized by selecting small values of (r/w, t/r, Cs/t and qc) and a ply
angle between 50 and 60 for the orthotropic laminate. The
minimum Kt value obtained in this study was 1.983 for an innite
plate with r/w 0, t/r 1, Cs/t 0.1, qc 80 and qp 60 .

7
6
Kt

0.2

80

K FE

70

5
4

6. Conclusions

r/w = 0.25

3
2

r/w = 0.1

1
0
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Ply angle p
Fig. 17. The stress concentration factor Kt versus the ply angle (Cs/t 0.25, t/r 1 and
qc 100 ).

A detailed 3-D FE stress analysis was conducted on countersunk

holes in orthotropic plates subjected to tensile loading. The analysis
included wide range of geometric parameters: radius-to-width
ratio, thickness-to-radius ratio, countersink depth-to-thickness
ratio and countersink angle. Eight plies of carbon/epoxy (AS4/
3501-6) with stacking sequence of [qp]2s were considered for the
orthotropic plate. The effect of varying the geometric parameters at
different orthotropic congurations on the SCF was examined.
Based on the FE results, it was found that the maximum Kt occurred
at the countersunk edge. It was also found that Kt increases
monotonically with r/w, t/r, Cs/t and qc, and that it has a descending

78

F. Darwish et al. / European Journal of Mechanics A/Solids 37 (2013) 69e78

- ascending trend with the ply angle, with a minimum value of Kt at

qp 50 e60 .
By means of factorial and multi parameter t analyses of the FE
results, it was possible to specify and drop out any insignicant
parameters and to t the remaining ones in a general parametric
equation that predicts the maximum SCF of countersunk holes in
orthotropic plates.
Several comparison studies were performed to examine the
accuracy of the developed equation. It was found that the results
obtained by Equation (5) are accurate within 7% of the FE results for
96% of the runs. The maximum overall error was less than 14%.
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