Crack point stress singularities at a bi-material interface

Abstract

A continuing study of plane stress singularities at corners and cracks has been extended to the case of a crack in. a hard (soft) material ending normal to a continuous interface with a soft (hard) material. The increase (decrease) in stress singularity over the homogeneous material case. which is of the characteristic inverse square root of distance from the crack point, is given for all relative rigidities between zero and infinity. Associated changes in the principal stress and distortion strain energy density distribution are also discussed, along with indications of application to such situations as microcrack growth near grain boundaries and earth faults in layered strata.