Fracture initiation in the contact region under shear

In the contact region between sliding elastic bodies, there are subregions where the interacting shores are bonded and subregions where they can slide along each other. It is convenient to interpret the latter as transverse shear cracks with slip resistance forces acting on their closed shores. In the end regions of such a crack, stress concentration may lead to fracture initiation in the contacting bodies. Experimental results and an analytic model of the phenomenon are given for a situation where the fracture intersects the contact plane tilted with respect to the direction of the loads.