A method is presented here to extract stress intensity factors for interface cracks in plane bimaterial fracture problems. The method relies on considering a companion problem wherein a very thin elastic interlayer is artificially inserted between the two material regions of the original bimaterial problem. The crack in the companion problem is located in the middle of the interlayer with its tip located within the homogeneous interlayer material. When the thickness of the interlayer is small compared with the other length scales of the problem, a universal relation can be established between the actual interface stress intensity factors at the crack tip for the original problem and the mode I and II stress intensity factors associated with the companion problem. The universal relation is determined by formulating and solving a boundary value problem. This universal relation now allows the determination of the stress intensity factors for a generic plane interface crack problem as follows. For a given interface crack problem, the companion problem is formulated and solved using the finite element method. Mode I and II stress intensity factors are obtained using the modified virtual crack closure method. The universal relation is next used to obtain the corresponding interface stress intensity factors for the original interface crack problem. An example problem involving a finite interface crack between two semi-infinite blocks is considered for which analytical solutions exist. It is shown that the method described above provides very acceptable results.
Determination of mode I stress intensity factors of complex configurations using strain gages