Assessing interfacial fracture in orthotropic materials: Implementing the RIS concept with considering the T-stress term under mixed-mode I/II

Research on interfacial crack formation in orthotropic bi-materials has experienced a notable increase in recent years, driven by growing concerns about structural integrity and reliability. The existence of a crack at the interface of bimaterials has a substantial impact on mechanical strength and can ultimately lead to fracture. The primary objective of this article is to introduce a comprehensive analytical model and establish stress relationships for investigating interfacial crack between two non-identical orthotropic materials with desired crack-fiber angles. In this paper, we present the application of the Interfacial Maximum Tangential Stress (IMTS) criterion, in combination with the Reinforcement Isotropic Solid (RIS) model, to investigate the behavior of interfacial cracks in orthotropic bi-materials under mixed-mode I/II loading conditions.We analytically characterize the stress state at the interfacial crack tip using both Stress Intensity Factors (SIFs) and the T-stress term. Orthotropic materials, due to their anisotropic nature, can exhibit complex crack tip stress fields, making it challenging to predict crack initiation behavior. The secondary objective of this study is to employ the IMTS criterion to predict the crack initiation angle and explore the notable impact of the T-stress term on fracture behavior. Furthermore, we validate the effectiveness of our approach in evaluating Fracture Limit Curves (FLCs) for interfacial cracks in orthotropic bi-materials by comparing our FLCs with relevant experimental data from existing literature.