Comparison of energy release rate and minimum strain energy density for potential failure of composite with bi-material interface

An analytical method is developed to describe the fields of stress and displacement in a bi-material strip specimen with an edge interfacial crack. All of the basic governing equations, boundary conditions on crack surfaces and conditions of continuity along the interface are satisfied by the eigenfunction expansion method. The other boundary conditions are satisfied by the generalized variational principle. The stress intensity factors are calculated for determining the energy release rate and minimum strain energy density factor S_min that is used the strain energy density criterion. Problems with oscillatory singularity and contact zone are discussed. Not only the effects of bi-material modulus ratio, thickness ratio, Poisson's ratio and crack length to S_min, but also the influences of bi-material modulus ratio, thickness ratio to phase angle are presented. Among these parameters, particular situations where S_min become jeopardously high and lead to failure are discussed.