THE SINGULAR STRESS-FIELD OF A CRACK TERMINATING AT A FRICTIONAL INTERFACE BETWEEN 2 MATERIALS

The problem of a crack terminating at an interface between two materia ls which is governed by Coulomb's law of friction is studied using Mel lin integral transforms. Depending on the relative slip directions of the two wedges that are created by the crack, both the case of the two wedges moving in opposite directions and that of the two wedges movin g in the same direction are treated. The characteristic equations whic h yield the order of the crack-tip singularity are obtained in terms o f the Dundurs constants, the inclination of the crack and the coeffici ent of friction. For the special case when the crack is perpendicular to the interface and the two wedges slip in opposite directions, it is shown that the problem decouples into mode I (symmetric) and mode II (antisymmetric) cracks and numerical results are presented for this ca se.