Effect of elastic constants on crack channeling in a thin film bonded to an orthotropic substrate

A channeling crack confined in an orthotropic film bonded to an orthotropic substrate under a steady-state condition is investigated. The problem is formulated based on a modified Stroh formalism and an orthotropy rescaling technique, in order to determine the necessary material parameters required to describe the steady-state energy release rate. A closed form of the energy release rate is obtained with the exception of the normalized energy release rate for the transformed bimaterial structure that consists of the orthotropic film and isotropic substrate. The normalized energy release rates for the transformed problem are shown to depend on only four material parameters and are numerically calculated using finite element analyses. The periodic channels in the film layer of the bimaterial structure are also considered. The steady-state energy release rates for the periodic channeling cracks are obtained as a function of the ratio of the film thickness to the crack spacing for various combinations of the material parameters.