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New solution coefficients for crack kinking at orthotropic bimaterial interfaces

Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Crack kinking is a deviation of the crack out of the crack plane. It can occur at the interface between two materials when the crack leaves the preferred interfacial path. Studying and controlling crack kinking is important for many problems, for instance to analyse crack propagation and in the design of damage mitigation concepts. The model formulated by He and Hutchinson [Journal of Applied Mechanics, 56(2), 1989], later extended by He et al. [Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 74, 1991], defines the stress intensity factors at the tip of the kink crack as a linear combination of the complex stress intensity factor of the interface crack and the non-singular crack tip in-plane stress through three complex coefficients. The coefficients depend on the elastic properties of the materials and the kink angle and have been derived and tabulated for some material combinations. Composite materials used nowadays in the naval and aeronautical sectors are not included. In this work a semi-analytical approach is adopted to derive the new coefficients for modern isotropic and orthotropic materials widely used in the aeronautical and naval sectors. The approach uses finite element analyses, and algebraic manipulation of the numerical results. The methodology to compute the coefficients is presented and verified using reference values available in literature, and the new computed coefficients are tabulated in the supplementary material.
DOI: 10.1016/j.engfracmech.2025.111259
Language: English
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,120
OpenAlex ID: W4411116726
FWCI:
Cites: 28
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Related to: 10