Photoelastic analysis of crack terminating at an arbitrary angle to the bimaterial interface under four point bending

Abstract

A bimaterial strip made of Aluminum-Epoxy pair with crack terminating at an arbitrary angle to the interface subjected to bending is studied using photoelasticity technique. When the crack terminates at an arbitrary angle to the interface, the stress singularity depends on the bimaterial elastic constants as well as the geometry of the crack. The shape of the photoelastic fringe patterns observed at the crack tip terminating at the interface varied based on the crack inclination angle. Complex crack tip stress field equation for crack terminating at an arbitrary angle to the interface along with an over deterministic non-linear least squares method incorporated in an in-house developed PSIF software is used for the evaluation of SIFs. The effect of the crack inclination angle on the SIF values is brought out. Mode-I and Mode-II SIFs, interfacial SIF, combined SIF, and phase angle are evaluated for the bimaterial pair considered. The corresponding normalized SIF values are calculated. It is observed that the SIF values increase with the crack inclination angle. Cracks at angles greater than 45° have significant SIF values, with highest SIF values occurring for 90° crack.