Thermal Fracture Analysis Of Nonhomogeneous Plate with Interfaces Under Uniform Heat Flow

Abstract

The mixed-mode thermomechanical fracture problem in a nonhomogeneous material plate with two interfaces is studied in this research. Uniform heat flow conditions are considered. The interaction energy integral method for the thermal fracture problem is developed to calculate the thermal stress intensity factors (TSIFs) in nonhomogeneous materials. This method is proved to be domain independent for nonhomogeneous materials even when the integral domain is cut by one interface or many interfaces. Combining the interaction energy integral method with the extended Finite Element Method (XFEM), the temperature fields, the displacement fields, the thermal stress fields, and the TSIFs are calculated. In this article, both the edge crack and the internal crack are considered. Some examples are presented to study the influence of the material properties on the TSIFs. It can be found that the mismatch of the elastic modulus and thermal expansion coefficient can affect the TSIFs dramatically; however, the thermal conductivity interface will not arouse a kinking behavior of the TSIFs. It can be concluded that the existence of an interface (especially for elastic modulus and thermal expansion coefficient) affects the TSIFs greatly.