Mechanics of transonic debonding of a bimaterial interface: The anti- plane shear case (Q1345995)

The paper deals with the transonic debonding under antiplane shear. It is the case for which an interfacial crack advances at a velocity higher than the lowest wave speed of the compliant component, but lower than the highest wave speed of the stiff component of the bimaterial. Transonic debonding involves mixed type governing equations for a steady state growing crack, hyperbolic in the compliant component and elliptical in the stiff component. The authors argue that only one family of characteristics is present in the hyperbolic region, and the upper crack wake is stress-free. By traction and displacement continuity across the interface, a Wiener- Hopf type integral equation with a Cauchy kernel governs the interfacial shear stress. Through Hilbert projection, a closed-form analytical solution for the interfacial shear stress is obtained. Reported solutions for complete stress and displacement fields characterize the transmission of mechanical fields from the elliptical region to the hyperbolic region. The stress singularity at the crack tip depends on the crack propagation speed, and the stress distribution varies from constant-like when passing the lower shear wave speed to square root singular when approaching the higher shear wave speed. The stress intensity coefficient measuring the strength of this singularity is found for the case of a semi-infinite debonding crack subject to a steady-state crack face traction. Through evaluation of the energy flux into a crack tip, it is shown that the total energy release rate for transonic debonding vanishes, and the energy is transferred from the stiff material to the compliant one along the characteristic lines, without deposition at the crack tip. The debonding speed cannot exceed the higher shear wave speed provided the energy flux through the interface is bounded. The obtained major results, namely the velocity dependence on the crack tip singularity and the absence of one family of characteristics in the hyperbolic region, are related to the case of in-plane transonic debonding. This case is complicated by the division of different transonic debonding regimes between the neighboring characteristic wave speeds, since both material components have their Rayleigh wave speeds, shear wave speeds, and longitudinal wave speeds. The authors demonstrate that the stress intensity factor cannot be determined by straightforward application of the energy integral, due to a singular stress field for transonic debonding. The traction negation approach cannot be simply adopted to factorize a universal velocity dependence for the case of transonic debonding, although such a factorization is possible for the subsonic case.