• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.1275-1289
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• 1996

The plane elasticity problem of collinear cracks in a layered medium is investigated. The medium is modeled as bonded structure constituted from a surface layer and a semi-infinite substrate. Along the bond line between the two dissimilar homegeneous constituents, it is assumed that as interfacial zone having the functionally graded, nonhomogeneous elastic modulus exists. The layered medium contains three collinear cracks, one in each constituent material oriented perpendicular to the nominal interfaces. The stiffness matrix formulation is utilized and a set of homogeneous conditions relevant to the given problem is readily satisfied. The proposed mixed boundary value problem is then represented in the form of a system of integral equations with Cauchy-type singular kernels. The stress intensity factors are defined from the crack-tip stress fields possessing the standard square-root singular behavior. The resulting values of stress intensity factors mainly address the interactions among the cracks for various crack sizes and material combinations.