Analysis of inclined crack extension in orthotropic solids under biaxial loading

The objective of this work is to develop the capability to analyze accurately the mixed-mode propagation of a crack in composite structures with elastic orthotropic material stiffness properties and anisotropic material strength characteristics. In order to develop the capability to fully analyze fracture growth and failure in anisotropic structures, we examined the fundamental problem of mixed mode fracture by carrying out the analysis on orthotropic materials with an inclined crack subject to biaxial loading. Our goal here is to include an additional term in the asymptotic expansion of the crack tip stress field and to show that the direction of crack initiation can be significantly affected by that term. We employ the normal stress ratio theory to predict the direction of crack extension. It is shown that the angle of crack extension can be altered by horizontal loads and the use of second order term in the series expansion is important for the accurate determination of crack growth direction