Thermally conducting collinear cracks engulfed by thermomechanical field in a material with orthotropy

The problem of two collinear cracks in an orthotropic solid is investigated under applied mechanical and uniform heat flow loadings. The thermal medium crack model is applied to address the effects of the medium inside cracks. Applying the Fourier transform technique, the boundary-valve problem is reduced to solving triple integral equations, then to solving singular integral equations with the Cauchy kernel. The crack-tip thermoelastic fields involving of the strain energy density (SED) factors, the stress intensity factors, the jumps of temperature and elastic displacements across the cracks are given in closed forms. Numerical results are carried out to show the influences of applied mechanical loading and thermal conductivity of crack interior on the thermal stress intensity factors, the temperature change across crack faces and the strain energy density factors. The results reveal that the crack-tip thermoelastic fields are dependent on applied thermo-mechanical loadings and the thermophysical properties of crack interior. The crack-face thermal property is important and it should not be disregarded in analyzing thermoelastic problems of a cracked solid under a thermal loading.