Determination of crack initiation direction from a bi-material notch based on the strain energy density concept

The article presents a procedure for the determination of the direction of crack initiation from a bi-material notch. The approach is based on the knowledge of the strain energy density distribution. First, the strain energy density for a bi-material notch is expressed and then the directions of the crack initiation are evaluated. It is shown that for estimation of the crack initiation direction two existing singular terms have to be taken into account. The results are presented for a specific notch geometry for the varying ratio of Young’s moduli E1/E2 of both materials and the varying ratio of generalized stress intensity factors H2/H1.