Wedge corner stress behaviour of bonded dissimilar materials

A contour integral, based on Betti's reciprocal theorem, is used in conjunction with the finite element method to evaluate the magnitude of the wedge corner stress intensities associated with the higher order terms of the singular stress field near the interface corner of a bi-material joint. It is shown that using a different auxiliary field can eliminate the dependence of the wedge corner stress intensity on the integration path observed by [W.C. Carpenter, Int. J. Fracture 73 (1995) 93-108]. Finite element analysis of a typical joint geometry is used to demonstrate the path-independence of the magnitude of the stress intensities evaluated using the proposed method, and to show the effects of higher order terms on the stress state near the interface corner. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.