INTERFACIAL FRACTURE-MECHANICS FOR ANISOTROPIC BIMATERIALS

This paper focuses on aspects of fracture mechanics of interface crack s in anisotropic bimaterials. In this case there is a coupling of all three crack-tip fracture modes in the natural interface-crack coordina te system, whereas in the isotropic case, mode 3 is decoupled from mod es 1 and 2. This paper intends to shed light on how to interpret the c rack-tip fields which are given explicitly along the interface in term s of two (real 3 x 3) bimaterial matrices W and D. A matric function Y is defined in terms of W and D which determines the coupling and osci llations in the crack-tip fields. Explicit expressions for the crack-t ip fields and the associated stress intensity factors are given as wel l as for the energy release rate. The finite (Griffith) interface crac k is considered in detail.