TIP BEHAVIOR FOR CRACKS IN BONDED INHOMOGENEOUS MATERIALS

Consider two isotropic elastic half-spaces, welded together with a pressurized crack meeting the weld perpendicularly. A method is developed for determining the asymptotic behaviour of the crack-opening displacement near the tips of the crack. Two problems are considered in detail. In the first, the half-spaces are composed of different homogeneous materials. In the second, the uncracked half-space is inhomogeneous, with a shear modulus that varies exponentially. Each problem is reduced to a hypersingular integral equation, which is then subjected to a Mellin transform. Extensions of the method to other materials and configurations are suggested.