Transverse Cracking versus Longitudinal Splitting

The transition between cohesive and adhesive failure in a simple bi-material joint has been studied by Kendall (1975). Based on Griffith s energy approach, a criterion is derived for deflection along the interface for a short crack for an isotropic material 

The implication of Eq. (6.21) is that the criterion is dependent mainly on the ratio of the energies for longitudinal splitting and transverse cracking, and is relatively insensitive to crack length and the elastic modulus. It is also noted from experimental study that crack speed has a pronounced effect on the toughness ratio, Rl/Ri, and thus the crack deflection phenomenon. 

Fracture process zone (FPZ) in transverse fracture of unidirectional fiber composite. After 

He and Hutchinson (1989) considered a crack approaching an interface as a continuous distribution of dislocations along a semi-infinite half space. The effect of mismatch in elastic properties on the ratio of the strain energy release rates, Gi/Gj, is related to two non-dimensional parameters, the elastic parameters of Dundurs, a and /f (Dundurs, 1968)  

A criterion has been developed based on the tensile normal stress and the anisotropic tensile strength on arbitrary planes about the crack tip. It is assumed that the crack grows along the plane on which the stress ratio is maximum (Buezek and Herakovich, 1985). A maximum stress criterion is also proposed (Gupta et al., 1993) for a crack which deflects along the interface 

---