Elastic interaction of a crack with a microcrack array. I - Formulation of the problem and general form of the solution. II - Elastic solution for two crack configurations (piecewise constant and linear approximations)

Abstract Elastic interactions of a crack with an array of microcracks located near the tip is considered. The analysis is based on the potential representations (known also as representation of cracks by dislocations) and approximation of tractions on the microcracks by polynomials.