The effect of adhesive layer on crack propagation in laminates
The effect of the adhesive layer on crack propagation in composite materials is investigated. The composite medium consists of parallel load carrying laminates and buffer strips arranged periodically and bonded with thin adhesive layers. The strips, assumed to be isotropic and linearly elastic, contain symmetric cracks of arbitrary lengths located normal to the interfaces. Two problems are considered: (1) thin adhesive layers are approximated by uncoupled tension and shear springs distributed along the interfaces of the strips for which only the case of internal cracks can be treated rigorously; (2) broken laminates and the true singular behavior in the presence of the adhesive layer are studied. The adhesive is then treated as an isotropic, linearly elastic continuum. General expressions for field quantities are obtained in terms of infinite Fourier integrals. These expressions give a system of singular integral equations in terms of the crack surface displacement derivatives. By using appropriate quadrature formulas, the integral equations reduce to a system of linear algebraic equations which are solved numerically.