Stress Field Caused by Polygonal Inclusion

In this paper, we analyze the elastic field caused by an arbitrary polygonal inclusion (with uniform eigenstrain prescribed) in an infinite elastic solid. Closed-form solutions are obtained using Green’s function technique. Numerical calculations are performed for the strain and stress distributions in and around a regular polygonal inclusion. It is shown that logarithmic-type stress singularity at each corner of the inclusion may vanish only for a square inclusion of a specific orientation. Unique properties of the Eshelby tensor of a regular polygonal inclusion found by Nozaki and Taya [ASME J. Appl. Mech., Vol. 64, 1997, pp. 495-502] are also investigated in detail and the terms that cause the properties are specified.