Inplane Stress Singularities at the Corner of an Anisotropic Material Discontinuity

Abstract

In the mechanics of composite laminates the local mechanical inplane fields at corners of anisotropic material discontinuities are of particular interest since they can have singular behavior. In the present study, the stress and strain fields in the local near field of such corners are investigated by an asymptotic analysis. The order of the singularity of these mechanical inplane fields are determined in closed-form manner by use of the complex potential method based on Lekhnitskii's approach. Various different geometrical setups and material combinations of corners with material discontinuities are investigated with regard to their effect on the singular behavior of the mechanical fields present. These examples show that the order of singularity considered is clearly weaker than the typical crack tip singularity in fracture mechanics. Nevertheless, it may render the corner a critical location for the onset of failure. (© 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)