INTERACTION BETWEEN A CRACK AND A FREE OR WELDED BOUNDARY IN MEDIA WITH ARBITRARY ANISOTROPY

The problem of an arbitrarily oriented straight crack near a straight free or welded boundary, in media with the most general anisotropy, is considered. Using the solution given by Stroh [2] for a dislocation in an infinite medium, we choose appropriate stress functions to obtain the solution for a dislocation near the boundary. A system of singular integral equations is then set up for the crack and its numerical solution gives the dislocation density of it. Results related to a wear application are presented and the variation of the stress intensity factors with the material anisotropy and the position of the crack is shown.