INFLUENCE OF MICROCRACKS ON THERMAL FRACTURE OF MACROCRACK

This work is concerned with the influence of microcracks on the fractu re stability of a macrocrack in a uniform field of heat flux. Evaluate d are the macrocrack tip stress intensity factors for plane problems o f thermoelasticity. Several distributions of microcracks with varying location and orientation are examined; they could either enhance or su ppress the onset of macrocrack growth. The microcracks are one order o f magnitude shorter than the macrocrack such that the individual effec ts of the microcracks can be obtained by superposition.