EFFECTS OF 3-DIMENSIONAL CONSTRAINT ON CRACKS ON BIMATERIAL INTERFACES

An exact asymptotic analysis for a crack lying on the interface of two elastic-plastic materials is performed under three-dimensional stress constraint. Various combinations of the three-dimensional constraint factor T-z1/T-z2, the hardening exponent n(1)/n(2) and the hardening c oefficient alpha(1)/alpha(2) are considered. It is shown that the stre ss and deformation fields, especially the stress continuity condition on the interface are dependent upon the three-dimensional constraint f actors, and some interesting results are presented. The influence of t he constraint on singularity of the stress fields is studied as well. The stress singularity is weaker than the HRR singularity except T-z1 = T-z2 = 0.0 and 0.5. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd