A crack induced by a thin rigid inclusion partly debonded from the matrix

Abstract

The interaction of a thin rigid inclusion with a finite crack is studied. Two plane problems of elasticity are considered. The first one concerns the case when the upper side of the inclusion is completely debonded from the matrix, and the crack penetrates into the medium. In the second model, the upper side of the inclusion is partly separated from the matrix, that is the crack length $2a$ is less than $2b$, the inclusion length. It is shown that both problems are governed by a singular integral equation of the same structure. Derivation of the closed-form solution of this integral equation is the main result of the paper. The solution is found by solving the associated vector Riemann-Hilbert problem with the Chebotarev-Khrapkov matrix coefficient. A feature of the method proposed is that the vector Riemann-Hilbert problem is set on a finite segment, while the original Khrapkov method of matrix factorization is developed for a closed contour. In the case, when the crack and inclusion lengths are the same, the solution is derived by passing to the limit $b/a\to 1$. It is demonstrated that the limiting case $a=b$ is unstable, and when $a<b$, and the crack tips approach the inclusion ends, the crack tends to accelerate in order to penetrate into the matrix.