Square Cracks in Three-Dimensional Transversely Isotropic Solids

Abstract

This paper presents a study for the square crack in a three-dimensional infinite transversely isotropic medium, which can model the fracture damage of rock that displays transversely isotropic behavior. The study is based on a newly derived boundary integral equation. To carry out the numerical simulation, the crack opening displacement is first expressed as the product of the weight functions and the characteristic terms, and the unknown weight is approximated with the moving least-square approximation. A boundary type numerical scheme is established, and the effect of the orientation of the principle axis on the stress intensity factor is studied. The interaction between two coplanar square cracks are also modeled and discussed.