Heat Conduction and Thermo-Elastic Stress Field Disturbed by a Thermal-Medium Crack Propagating in Orthotropic Materials Characterized by Real or Complex Eigenvalues

A dynamic, partially permeable crack model for orthotropic materials is established with the crack full of thermal medium. Besides external thermal and elastic loadings, the heat flux generated by the crack interior full of a medium also contributes to the crack boundary conditions, which is dependent on the crack opening displacement. Thus, the heat conduction is dependent on elastic field. First, the heat conduction equation is solved exactly in terms of unknown heat flux of the crack interior. Then, the elastic field is presented for real or complex eigenvalue cases on the basis of the operator theory. Finally, the thermal and elastic fields are presented analytically, and the heat flux of the crack interior is determined explicitly. Numerical results are offered to show the influences of the thermal conductivity coefficient, normal and shear loadings and crack velocity on the distributions of the heat flux, temperature difference across the crack surfaces, and thermal stress intensity factor. Figures illustrate that increasing the crack velocity leads to a more thermally impermeable crack and produces a bigger temperature difference across the crack surfaces.