APPLICATION OF A SINGULAR INTEGRAL-EQUATION METHOD TO A CRACK BRANCHING AT AN INTERFACE

The plane elastostatic problem of a crack branching at a fiber/matrix interface in carbon fiber reinforced composites is considered using a micromechanical model. The model is a crack which originates in one half-plane and branches at a bimaterial interface of a bonded plane consisting of an isotropic and an orthotropic half-planes. The method of continuous distribution of dislocations reduces the problem to a system of a simultaneous singular integral equations of the second kind, which is solved nemerically by use of the Lobatto-Jacobi integration rule. The singular stress field at the crack tips is investigated in terms of stress intensity factors and crack opening displacements.