Elastic field perturbation by an elliptic inhomogeneity with a sliding interface

Abstract

Muskhelishvili complex potentials are used to solve the problem of an infinite elastic plane containing an elliptic inhomogeneity with a sliding interface but no eigenstrain. The boundary conditions considered are (a) continuity of normal tractions and displacements and vanishing shear tractions at the interface, and (b) vanishing stresses at infinity. After a conformal mapping of the elastic plane, the solution is obtained in terms of a set of infinite algebraic equations yielding the Laurent's expansion coefficients of the complex potentials. Distinct sets of formulae must be written for a circular inhomogeneity (degenerate ellipse) and an elliptic inhomogeneity (no degeneracy), and in both cases no closed-form solution is obtainable. For an elliptic inhomogeneity the solution requires iteration and recursion, and implies vanishing stresses in the homogeneity when the system is loaded with a remote uniform shear parallel to the axes of the ellipse.