Extended displacement discontinuity boundary integral equation and boundary element method for cracks in thermo-magneto-electro-elastic media

Abstract

The extended displacement discontinuity boundary integral equation (EDDBIE) and boundary element method is developed for the analysis of planar cracks of arbitrary shape in the isotropic plane of three-dimensional (3D) transversely isotropic thermo-magneto-electro-elastic (TMEE) media. The extended displacement discontinuities (EDDs) include conventional displacement discontinuity, electric potential discontinuity, magnetic potential discontinuity, as well as temperature discontinuity across crack faces; correspondingly, the extended stresses represent conventional stress, electric displacement, magnetic induction and heat flux. Employing a Hankel transformation, the fundamental solutions for unit point EDDs in 3D transversely isotropic TMEE media are derived. The EDDBIEs for a planar crack of arbitrary shape in the isotropic plane of a 3D transversely isotropic TMEE medium are then established. Using the boundary integral equation method, the singularities of near-crack border fields are obtained and the extended stress field intensity factors are expressed in terms of the EDDs on crack faces. According to the analogy between the EDDBIEs for an isotropic thermoelastic material and TMEE medium, an analogical solution method for crack problems of a TMEE medium is proposed for coupled multi-field loadings. Employing constant triangular elements, the EDDBIEs are discretized and numerically solved. As an application, the problems of an elliptical crack subjected to combined mechanical-electric-magnetic-thermal loadings are investigated.