Interaction between a circular inclusion and a symmetrically branched crack

The interaction problem between a circular inclusion and a symmetrically branched crack embedded in an infinite elastic medium is solved. The branched crack is modeled as three straight cracks which intersect at a common point and each crack is treated as a continuous contribution of edge dislocations. Green's functions are used to reduce the problem into a system of singular equations consisting of the distributions of Burger's dislocation vectors as unknown functions through the superposition technique. The resulting integral equations are solved numerically by the method of Gauss-Chebychev quadrature. The proposed integral equation approach is first verified for two limiting cases against the literature. More effort is paid on the effect of inclusion on both the Mode I and Mode lI stress intensity factors at the branch tips. The effect of inclusion on the branching path is also investigated.