ITERATIVE BOUNDARY ELEMENT METHOD FOR CRACKS IN A THERMAL MEDIUM WITH EXACT CRACK FACE BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

Abstract

An iterative boundary element method is proposed to analyze cracks with exact crack face boundary conditions in thermoelastic solids. Herein, the crack was opened under external loading, whereupon the opened cavity was considered a domain. The boundary element method for the crack-cavity domain and the sub-region boundary element method for the outer thermoelastic solid were used iteratively to obtain the real deformed crack faces. In this approach, the exact face boundary conditions on crack faces were used and the stress intensity factor and thermal flux density intensity factor near the crack tip were calculated.