An inclusion at a bi-material elastic interface

This paper examines the problem of the axial displacement of a rigid circular disk-shaped inclusion which is embedded at the interface between two bonded dissimilar isotropic elastic solids. The analysis focusses on the determination of the axial stiffness of the embedded inclusion, which is evaluated by a numerical solution of two coupled Fredholm integral equations of the second-kind derived from the reduced mixed boundary-value problem for the interface. The results for the axial stiffness are also compared with certain 'bounds' which are developed by imposing constraints on the variation of either the traction or the displacements at the interface.