Anti-plane problem of periodic interface cracks in a functionally graded coating-substrate structure

In this paper, the interface cracking between a functionally graded material (FGM) and an elastic substrate is analyzed under antiplane shear loads. Two crack configurations are considered, namely a FGM bonded to an elastic substrate containing a single crack and a periodic array of interface cracks, respectively. Standard integral-transform techniques are employed to reduce the single crack problem to the solution of an integral equation with a Cauchy-type singular kernel. However, for the periodic cracks problem, application of finite Fourier transform techniques reduces the solution of the mixed-boundary value problem for a typical strip to triple series equations, then to a singular integral equation with a Hilbert-type singular kernel. The resulting singular integral equation is solved numerically. The results for the cases of single crack and periodic cracks are presented and compared. Effects of crack spacing, material properties and FGM nonhomogeneity on stress intensity factors are investigated in detail.