On the effects of a crack propagating toward the interface of a bimaterial system

This paper deals with the influence of matrix cracks on the failure mode of bimaterial systems and composite materials. In order to investigate such an influence, the stress field near a crack embedded into the more yielding material and propagating perpendicularly to the interface, has been analyzed by using systematic numerical simulations. Such analysis has shown that the crack propagation give rises to transversal stresses that can damage the reinforcing materials when this has low modulus, as glass fibers, or low transversal strength, such as carbon fibers. Moreover, the longitudinal stress concentration can damage the reinforcing material only if this has high stiffness, as in the case of aramid and carbon fibers.Also, the numerical results have permitted to implement simple formulas that allows the user an accurate evaluation of the SIF as well as to predict possible debonding or fiber splitting phenomena. Finally, the SIFs evaluated numerically have been corroborated by experimental tests carried out by using an efficient procedure based on RGB digital photoelasticity.