Mode I stress singularity and intensity factor at a crack tip terminating at a transversely isotropic-orthotropic bimaterial interface

Abstract

The stress singularity and stress intensity factor (SIF) are calculated in mode I at a crack tip terminating at a transversely isotropic-orthotropic bimaterial interface. The results are applied to a cracked transversely isotropic layer sandwiched between two orthotropic sublaminates of finite thickness. The solution includes the degenerate case when the two media tend to be dissimilar isotropic ones. It is shown that under mode I loading, the stress singularity and the SIF are dominated by one or two mixed material parameters. As the problem is motivated by the concern to prevent interfacial failure of fibre-reinforced composites, the influence of ply angle θ of the orthotropic plies on the stress singularity and the SIF is studied for fibre-reinforced % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafiart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGak0Jf9crFfpeea0xh9v8qiW7rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaai4waiabgg% laXkabeI7aXjabfclaWkaac+cacaaI5aGaaGimaiabfclaWkaac2fa% daWgaaWcbaGaam4Caaqabaaaaa!448D!\[[ \pm \theta ^\circ /90^\circ ]_s \] composite laminates. It is found that whilst the ply angle θ has only a moderate influence on the stress singularity, its influence on the SIF can be very significant.