Mutual Interference of Two Surface Cracks in a Semi-Infinite Body Due to Rolling Contact with Frictional Heating by a Rigid Roller

This paper deals with the two-dimensional thermoelastic contact problem of a rolling rigid cylinder of specified shape, which induces effects of friction and heat generation in the contact region, moving with constant velocity in an elastic half-space containing two surface cracks located close to each other. In the present temperature analysis, the speed of the moving heat source is assumed to be much greater than the ratio of the thermal diffusivity to the contact length. The problem is solved using complex-variable techniques and is reduced to a pair of singular integral equations which are solved numerically. Numerical results of stress intensity factors are obtained for the case of two parallel cracks. The variance in interference effects on the stress intensity factors with distance between two cracks, and the effects of the frictional coefficient, the sliding/rolling ratio and the distribution of heat generation on the results are considered.