Thermal stresses in an elastic space with a perfectly rigid flat inclusion under perpendicular heat flow

This paper examines the three-dimensional problem of finding thermal stresses due to an insulated rigid sheet-like inclusion (anticrack) in an elastic space under a uniform perpendicular heat flow. By using appropriate harmonic potentials, a general method of solving this problem is presented. The resulting boundary-value problems are reduced to classical mixed problems of potential theory. For the purpose of illustration, a complete solution in terms of elementary functions for a rigid circularly shaped inclusion is given and discussed from the point of view of material failure.