Scale effects in the initiation of cracking of a scarf joint

The singular stress field at the interface-corner of a bi-material scarf joint is analysed for a strip of finite width, w, under remote tension and bending. The two substrates are taken as linear elastic and isotopic. The intensity of the singular stress field is calculated using a domain integral method, and is plotted as a function of joint geometry and material mismatch parameters. It is envisaged that the intensity of singularity can serve as a valid fracture criterion provided the zone of nonlinearity is fully embedded within the singular elastic field. It is assumed that fracture initiates when the magnitude of the corner singularity attains a critical value; consequently, the fracture strength of the joint depends upon the size of the structure. In addition, the interfacial stress intensity factor and the associated T-stress are determined for an edge interfacial crack. When the crack is short with respect to the width of the strip, the stress intensity factor is dominated by the presence of the corner singularity; a boundary layer formulation is used to determine the coupling between the crack tip field and the interface-corner field. The solution suggests that an interfacial crack grows unstably with a rapidly increasing energy release rate, but with only a small change in mode mix. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.