Fracture mechanics analysis model for functionally graded materials with arbitrarily distributed properties

Functionally Graded Materials (FGMs) have been developed as super-resistant materials for propulsion systems and airframe of space-planes in order to decrease thermal stresses and to increase the effect of protection from heat. It has been experimentally observed that surface cracking in FGMs is the most common failure mode of a metal-ceramic FGM when it is subjected to a thermal shock. Therefore, it is very important to consider the thermally induced fracture behaviors of FGMs. In this paper, a functionally graded material strip containing an embedded or a surface crack perpendicular to its boundaries is considered. The graded region is treated as a large number of single layers, with each layer being homogeneous material. The problem is reduced to an integral equation and is solved numerically. Unlike most of the existing researches, which considered only certain assumed material distributions, the method developed in this paper can be used to investigate functionally graded materials with arbitrarily varied material properties.