Delamination in elastic shear deformable circular layers

This work extends the analytical solution of an interface crack in straight layered structures to circular layered structures. A small segment at the vicinity of an interface crack tip in a circular laminated beam is analyzed by a novel shear deformable bi-layered circular beam theory. Two concentrated forces are found existing at the crack tip due to the requirement of the equilibrium condition. Closed-form solution of the total energy release rate of the interface crack is obtained as the half of the product of the concentrated forces and the corresponding displacement gradient discontinuities at the crack tip. Closed-form expressions of the mode I and II components of the energy release rate are also obtained by global and local methods. Numerical verifications are conducted by analyzing the interlaminar delamination of a circular beam with an edged crack and comparing with the baseline results obtained through finite element analysis. Excellent agreements between the present method and finite element analysis on the predictions of total energy release rate and mode partition verify the accuracy and efficiency of the present solution.