Summary
In actual geotechnical and civil engineering, dynamic stress concentrations around cavities generated by wave sources widely exist. In this study, based on the complex variable theory and Fourier transform method, the expression of the dynamic stress concentration factor (DSCF) around a circular cavity in infinite homogeneous media subjected to transient waves with arbitrary waveform is obtained. The relationships between both steady‐state and transient DSCF and their waveform parameters are investigated quantitatively. The results indicate that a relatively large tensile stress is generated with low Poisson's ratio under steady‐state incidence. Under the condition of transient incidence, the position of the wave peak has a minor effect on the DSCF in the case of small wavenumber, but it has a significant effect in the opposite case. It is found that when the wavenumber is high, such as 0.5, the stress response lags behind the stress wave. In addition, the closer the wave peak to the center of the waveform, the greater the potential damage of the transient incidence.