Interface crack between two shear deformable elastic layers

An improved method based on the first-order shear deformable plate theory is developed to calculate the energy release rate and stress intensity factor for a crack at the interface of a bi-layer structure. By modeling the uncracked region of the structure as two separate Reissner-Mindlin plates bonded perfectly along the interface, this method is able not only to take into account the shear deformation in the cracked region, but also to capture the shear deformation in the uncracked region of the structure. A closed form solution of energy release rate and mode decomposition at the interface crack is obtained for a general loading condition, and it indicates that the energy release rate and stress intensity factor are determined by two independent loading parameters. Compared to the approach based on the classical plate theory, the proposed method provides a more accurate prediction of energy release rate as well as mode decomposition. The computational procedures introduced are relatively straightforward, and the closed form solution can be used to predict crack growth along the layered structures.