THE FREE-END INTERFACE CRACK PROBLEM FOR BONDED ORTHOTROPIC LAYERS

The plane elasticity problem of two bonded orthotropoic layers contain ing cracks perpendicular to and along the interface is considered. The cracks are extended to intersect the boundaries and each other in suc h a way that a crack configuration suitable to study the edge debondin g problem associated with bonded dissimilar materials is obtained. The problem is reduced to the solution of a system of singular integral e quations with Cauchy type singularities. Numerical results for stress intensity factors and energy release rates are presented for various l oading conditions and for isotropic as well as orthotropic material pa irs. These results indicate that elementary strength of material type calculations for energy release rates provide a very good approximatio n to the actual elasticity solution even for relatively short cracks u nder some practical loading conditions such as thermal loading, as lon g as the thicknesses of the layers are not very different.