Steady-State Temperatures in an Infinite Medium Split by a Pair of Coplanar Cracks

This article presents a study on the steady-state heat conduction in an infinite medium containing two coplanar cracks. Using an integral transform technique, formal temperature solutions have first been worked out for both the fundamental symmetric and antisymmetric cases. The explicit and exact expressions for temperatures are then developed via both the conventional inversion transform approach and an analytical continuation method proposed in this paper. Numerical results prepared from analytic and numerical methods are presented in graphic form for temperatures on the horizontal crack plane and on a plane slant to the cracks. The relative merit of various possible solution methods is also discussed.