An incompressible liquid slit between dissimilar anisotropic elastic media

Abstract

We use the Stroh sextic formalism to solve the generalized plane strain problem associated with a finite incompressible liquid slit lying between dissimilar anisotropic elastic half-planes subjected to a system of uniform remote stresses. The liquid slit admits an internal uniform hydrostatic stress field and is perfectly bonded to the surrounding media. By enforcing the interface conditions on the solid-solid and liquid-solid interfaces, a Riemann-Hilbert problem of vector form is obtained and is solved analytically using a decoupling procedure. An application of the residue theorem following the imposition of the incompressibility condition of the liquid slit leads to the determination of the internal uniform hydrostatic tension within the liquid slit. When the elastic bimaterial is orthotropic, the internal uniform hydrostatic tension is equal to the remote normal stress component perpendicular to the surfaces of the liquid slit. The presence of the liquid slit will inhibit crack growth along the anisotropic elastic bimaterial interface.