EXPLICIT SOLUTIONS FOR THE ELASTIC AND THERMOELASTIC FIELDS WITH A RIGID CIRCULAR-ARC INCLUSION

A general solution to the elastic and thermoelastic problems with a ri gid circular-arc inclusion is presented. The proposed analysis is base d upon the complex variable theory dealing with sectionally holomorphi c functions which is reduced to the solution of the Hilbert problem. I t is indicated that both the stress and thermal stress fields near the inclusion tip possess a square-root singularity similar to that for t he corresponding crack problem. In analogy to the stress intensity fac tors defined for crack problem, stress singularity coefficients are in troduced in this paper to characterize the near tip fields. Complete s tress fields and the corresponding stress singularity coefficients as the circular-arc inclusion are under uniform remote load, concentrated force and uniform heat flux are given. Failure initiation of an infin ite plate embedded with a rigid arc inclusion under different loading conditions is also discussed.