Interaction of three interfacial Griffith cracks between bonded dissimilar orthotropic half planes

The paper deals with the interaction of a pair of outer cracks on a central crack situated at the interface of two dissimilar orthotropic half-planes. The mixed boundary value problem is reduced to solving a pair of simultaneous singular integral equations which have finally been solved numerically by using Jacobi polynomials. The analytical expressions for stress intensity factors at the central crack tip and the expression of the strain energy release rate have been derived for general loading. Numerical values of the interaction effects of the outer cracks on the central crack have been calculated through stress magnification factors. It is seen that the interaction effects are either shielding or amplification depending on the size of the outer cracks and their spacing from the central crack.