Elastic behaviour of a wedge disclination dipole near a sharp crack emanating from a semi-elliptical blunt crack

The interaction between a wedge disclination dipole and a crack emanating from a semi-elliptic hole is investigated. Utilising the complex variable method, the closed form solutions are derived for complex potentials and stress fields. The stress intensity factor at the tip of the crack and the image force acting on the disclination dipole center are also calculated. The influence of the morphology of the blunt crack and the position of the disclination dipole on the shielding effect to the crack and the image force is examined in detail. The results indicate that the shielding or anti-shielding effect to the stress intensity factor increases when the wedge disclination dipole approaches the tip of the crack. The effects of the morphology of the blunt crack on the stress intensity factor of the crack and the image force are very significant.

The solution of a wedge disclination dipole interacting with an annular inclusion and the force acting on the disclination dipole

The interaction between a wedge disclination dipole and an elastic annular inclusion is investigated. Utilizing the Muskhelishvili complex variable method, the explicit series form solutions of the complex potentials in the matrix and the inclusion region are derived. The image force acting on the disclination dipole centre is also calculated. The influence of the location of the disclination dipole and the thickness of the annular inclusion as well as the elastic dissimilarity of materials upon the equilibrium position of the disclination dipole is discussed in detail. The results show that a stable equilibrium point of the disclination dipole near the inclusion is found for certain combinations of material constant. Moreover, the force on the disclination dipole is strongly affected by the position of the disclination dipole and the thickness of annular inclusion. The repulsion force increases （or the attraction force reduces） with the increase of the thickness of the annular inclusion. An appropriate critical value of the thickness of the annular inclusion may be found to change the direction of the force on the disclination dipole. The present solutions include previous results as special eases.