A rigid line in a confocal elliptic inhomogeneity embedded in an infinite medium under antiplane shear

An effective method is developed and used to investigate the antiplane problem of a rigid line in a confocal elliptic inhomogeneity embedded in an infinite medium. The analytical solution is obtained. The proposed method is based upon the use of conformal mapping and the theorem of analytic continuation. Special solutions which are verified by comparison with existing ones are provided. Finally, the characteristics of stress singularity at the tip of the rigid line inhomogeneity are analyzed and the extension forces for the crack and the rigid line inhomogeneity are derived. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the State Education Commission Foundation and the Failure Mechanics Lab of SEdC.