Transonic crack growth along a bimaterial interface: An investigation of the asymptotic structure of near-tip fields

Transonic interfacial crack growth in bimaterial systems is analysed, and the asymptotic field around the moving crack tip is obtained by the straightforward approach of analytic continuation. The power of singularity is less than l/2 for anti-plane shear deformation. For in-plane deformation, the power of singularity can be real or complex, depending on the speed of the crack tip. Across the Rayleigh wave speed, the real part of the power has a jump of -l/2, and the imaginary part approaches infinity. The stresses are singular, not only around the crack tip, but also on an entire ray moving with the crack tip. These observations are illustrated by examples using PMMA/steel and Al/A&O, bimaterial systems. Copyright 6 1996 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.