Stress concentration is one of the major challenges threatening the health and
integrity of engineering structures. This paper analyzes the stress distributions
around a spherical nanovoid near two parallel free surfaces. The loading is all-around
uniform tension at infinity, perpendicular to the axis of symmetry of the infinite
strip. Both plane surfaces of the strip assume traction free boundary conditions
whereas the spherical void surface is modeled as a mathematical thin-film of Gurtin
and Murdoch type. The method of Boussinesq’s displacement functions is used in the
analysis and the solutions are expressed semianalytically in terms of infinite series of
Legendre functions and improper integrals involving Bessel functions. Numerical
calculations are performed to illustrate the dependence of elastic fields on surface
material properties, model size, void radius, and eccentricity. The results suggest the
likelihood of optimizing stress concentrations in metallic materials and structures by
the proper design of surface material properties, particularly of the residual surface
stress.
