Dr. Alla Balueva, assistant professor of mathematics at the University of North Georgia's Gainesville Campus, recently published an article in the Journal Computational Thermal Stresses on heat sources' effects on penny-shaped cracks.
The article focuses on how contact with surface cracks leads to changing the stress and deformations within the structure and influences on the conditions of the crack growth and therefore on the life of the structure. Balueva's paper also explores how long the structure will survive before its failure.