A thermal-medium crack model

In analyzing the fracture behavior of a cracked thermoelastic material, of much importance are the effects of thermal loadings on the crack growth. Under the consideration of a medium in an opening crack, a thermal-medium crack model is proposed in this paper. The heat flux at the crack surfaces is assumed to depend on the jumps of the temperature and the elastic displacement across the crack. The thermally permeable and impermeable crack models are the limiting cases of a thermal-medium one. The proposed crack model is applied to solve the problem of a Griffith crack in a transversely isotropic material under thermal and mechanical loadings. Using two introduced displacement functions and the Fourier transform technique, the thermoelastic field and the elastic T-stress are determined in explicit forms by using elementary functions. Numerical results are presented to show the effects of the thermal conductivity inside a crack and applied mechanical loadings on the heat flux at the crack faces, the jumps of temperature across the crack and mode-II stress intensity factor in graphics respectively. The obtained results reveal that the mode-II stress intensity factor for a thermal-medium crack in a thermoelastic material depends not only on applied thermal loadings but also on applied mechanical ones.

► A thermal-medium crack model is proposed to simulate an opening crack in a thermoelastic material. ► Closed form solutions of thermoelastic fields induced by a crack are obtained. ► Thermally impermeable and permeable cracks are the limiting cases of a thermal-medium one. ► Applied mechanical loadings have great influences on mode-II stress intensity factor for a thermal-medium crack.