Interaction of a crack with a field of microcracks

Crack propagation in brittle materials is of ten accompanied by intensive microcracking; being a major energy sink,this phenomenon can strongly affect the fracture process. A two-dimensional problem of elastic interaction of a macrocrack with a field of microcracks is considered in the article. Consideration is based on the self-consistent method, generalized with the account of strong non — uniformity of the stress field in the vicinity of the macrocrack. The technique of double layer potentials is used. A closed form solution for the effective stress field is constructed.