Thermal shock analyses for a strip containing an infinite row of periodically distributed cracks normal to its edge

The transient thermal stress problem of a semi-infinite plate containing an infinite row of periodically distributed cracks normal to its edge is investigated in this paper. The elastic medium is assumed to be cooled suddenly on the crack-containing edge. By the superposition principle, the formulation leads to a mixed boundary value problem, with the negating tractions arisen from the thermal stresses for a crack-free semi-infinite plate. The resulting singular integral equation is solved numerically. The effects on the stress intensity factors due to the presence of periodically distributed cracks in a semi-infinite plate are illustrated. For both the edge crack and the embedded crack arrays, the stress intensity factors increase, due to the reduction of the shielding effect, as the stacking cracks are more separated. For the case of embedded crack array, one has the further conclusion that the stress intensity factors decline as the crack array shifts from the plate edge.