Abstract
The limitation of application of conformal mapping on the interaction between an edge dislocation and a crack is investigated. The in-plane fracture is usually obtained by the method of the Muskhelishvili complex potential. The equation obtained by the method of Muskhelishvili can be solved by Cauchy integral if it is analytic. Based on this point of view, an exact solution of an edge dislocation near a semi-infinite crack is obtained using conformal mapping. However, the conformal mapping cannot be applied to the problem of a wedge crack because the ratio of mapping function to the conjugate of its derivative is not analytic. Generally, most crack problems encounter the same difficulty as the wedge crack in obtaining the analytic form. © 1994.