COUPLED THERMOELASTIC EFFECTS IN RAPID STEADY-STATE QUASI-BRITTLE FRACTURE

The steady-state analyses of rapid quasi-brittle fracture generated in both a non-thermal and a fully coupled thermoelastic sheet are performed, Compressive forces moving on both faces of the crack drive the process, and a Dugdale zone represents a rudimentary inelastic region at the crack-edge. For the thermal problem, the region behavior is also characterized by an effective heat flux from the zone. For a given crack speed the loading required, the resulting zone size and, in the thermal study, the heat flux function, are determined from exact solutions by matching typical COD and crack-edge temperature data. Both the thermal and non-thermal studies show a fall-off with increasing crack speed in both the load and zone size. However, the loading and the zone lengths in the two studies differ noticeably. Moreover, the coupled thermoelastic solution is, in general, more sensitive to crack speed.