Stress singularities in composite materials with an arbitrary open crack meeting an interface. 1st report. The case of a semi-infinite open crack with stress-free surfaces.

Abstract

The stress singularities at the tip of an open crack (including a slit crack), lying arbitrarily inclined to the interface of two different materials, are examined. Using the eigenfunction-expansion method, the crack tip stress singularities for various crack and material combinations are computed for plane problems as well as for antiplane problems. The results show that the present analysis makes possible a highly accurate and efficient numerical solution of fracture mechanics problems.