Nonplanar interfacial cracks in anisotropic bimaterials

Abstract

This paper presents a general approach for the two-dimensional elastic problem of a crack lying along an elliptical interface seperating two dissimilar anisotropic materials. The analysis is based upon the use of the Eshelby-Stroh formalism of anisotropic elasticity theory and a special conformal mapping technique devised by Lekhniskii. The resulting elastic fields are fully described by a pair of function vectors whose components are holomorphic functions. These function vectors define the two-phase potentials of the bi-material. The associated expressions are universal in the sense of being applicable to any applied load. As in the case of a planar interface crack, the crack tip stress field is free of oscillation if the bimaterial matrix H is real. The general results are applied to specific examples and explicit forms of solutions are obtained.