Thermal stresses in a slab containing an annular crack

A linear thermoelastic problem of a slab containing an annular crack is solved. Using integral transform techniques, the problem is reduced to that of solving two singular integral equations of the first kind. The solution of the singular integral equation is obtained in the form of the product of the series of Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind and their weight functions. Thus the essential feature of the singular stress field near the crack is preserved and the crack tip stress intensity factor is easily evaluated. Numerical calculations are also carried out and the variations of the stress intensity factors are plotted against the geometry for various values of physical properties.