MODE-III CRACK IN A LAMINATED MEDIUM

Antiplane deformation of a laminated medium with a semi-infinite crack parallel to the interfaces between the layers is considered. The homo geneous, elastic and isotropic layers of two different types are arran ged periodically, This allows the reduction of the initial boundary va lue problem to the Wiener-Hopf equation by combined application of the Laplace and the discrete Fourier transforms. For the specific case of an exponentially decaying load the solution is obtained in closed for m by means of rapidly convergent triple integrals, The simple expressi ons for the stress intensity factor and the energy release rate are de rived. For some limiting cases the solution is found to be consistent with previous results. A parametric study gave an opportunity to exami ne the accuracy of the known approximate sandwich model of multilayere d composites. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.