AN OPPORTUNISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE INTERFACE CRACK

When the loading of an interface crack involves also some shear, one of the contact zones is much larger than the other. Moreover, the small contact zone is extremely short in comparison to the length of the crack. It is possible to take advantage of this fact by neglecting the small contact zone altogether, because the resulting integral equation that pertains to the large contact zone and the conditions at the corresponding crack tip can then be solved in closed form. The paper derives the solution and shows that the results achieved are extremely accurate, provided the large contact zone is long in comparison to the small contact zone, and that it is not necessary for the large contact zone to be of the order of the crack length.