THE FREE-EDGE STRESS SINGULARITY AT AN INTERFACE BETWEEN BILINEAR MATERIALS

The degree of the stress singularity that occurs at the termination of an interface between materials exhibiting bilinear stress-strain response under plane strain conditions is calculated. The governing elasticity equations together with traction-free boundary conditions and interface continuity conditions define a two-point boundary value problem. The stress components near the free edge are assumed to be proportional to r(s-1), with solutions existing only for certain values of s. Finding these values entails the solution of a generalized eigenvalue problem. Because it has been impossible to integrate the differential equations analytically, the integration has been performed numerically with a shooting method coupled with a Newton improvement scheme.