Study of thermo-elastic cruciform crack with unequal arms in an orthotropic elastic plane

Abstract

The objective of this article is concerned with a study of a static cruciform crack problem in an infinite orthotropic elastic medium opened by prescribed normal pressure distributions subjected to steady state temperature field. The problem is reduced to Fredholm singular integral equations of first kind, which are solved using Chebyshev polynomials. Analytical expressions of the stress intensity factors and crack energies are found and the numerical computations for the orthotropic elastic material Boron-epoxy composite for different particular cases are depicted through figures. The striking feature of the article is the graphical presentation of possibility of crack arrest and variations of crack energies with the variations of the arms of the cruciform crack. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim