Antiplane shear crack in a prestressed elastic medium based on the couple stress theory

A prestressed elastic medium containing a mode-Ⅲcrack is studied by means of the couple stress theory(CST).Based on the CST under initial stresses,a governing differential equation along with a mixed boundary value problem is established.The singularities of the couple stress and force stress near the crack tips are analyzed through the asymptotic crack-tip fields resulting from the characteristic expansion method.To determine their intensity,a hypersingular integral equation is derived and numerically solved with the help of the Chebyshev polynomial.The obtained results show a strong size-dependence of the out-of-plane displacement on the crack and the couple stress intensity factor(CSIF)and the force stress intensity factor(FSIF)around the crack tips.The symmetric part of the shear stress has no singularity,and the skew-symmetric part related to the couple stress exhibits an r^(-3/2)singularity,in which r is the distance from the crack tip.The initial stresses also affect the crack tearing displacement and the CSIF and FSIF.