Surface effects on elastic fields around surface defects

There are always severe stress concentrations around surface defects like grooves or bugles, which might induce the failure of solid materials and structures. In the present paper, we consider the elastic fields around nanosized bugles and grooves on solid surfaces. The influence of surface elasticity on the elastic deformation is addressed through a finite element method. It is found that when the size of defects shrinks to nanometer, the stress fields around such defects will be affected significantly by surface effects.