Dislocation tri-material solution in the analysis of bridged crack in anisotropic bimaterial half-space

The problem of an edge-bridged crack terminating perpendicular to a bimaterial interface in a half-space is analyzed for a general case of elastic anisotropic bimaterials and specialized for the case of orthotropic bimaterials. The edge crack lies in the surface layer of thickness h bonded to semi-infinite substrate. It is assumed that long fibres bridge the crack. Bridging model follows from the assumption of “large” slip lengths adjacent to the crack faces and neglect of initial stresses. The crack is modelled bymeans of continuous distribution of dislocations, which is assumed to be singular at the crack tip. With respect to the bridged crack problems in finite dissimilar bodies, the reciprocal theorem ( -integral) is demonstrated as to compute, in the present context, the generalized stress intensity factor through the remote stress and displacement field for a particular specimen geometry and boundary conditions using FEM. Also the application of the configurational force mechanics is discussed within the context of the investigated problem.