Paper number 1301

SINGULARITY-FREE COMPOSITES

T. C. T. Ting

Department of Civil and Materials Engineering
University of Illinois at Chicago
842 West Taylor Street (M/C 246)
Chicago, Illinois 60607-7023, U.S.A.

Summary

When a layered composite is subjected to an external load it always has stress singularities at certain locations in the composite. Examples are the free-edge where an interface meets a traction-free surface, a sharp notch and a crack. The existence of the singularities is due to the fact that the material is homogeneous in each layer. If the material is inhomogeneous, and if the inhomogeneity is such that the material is cylindrically orthotropic at each location where the singularity would occur if the material were homogeneous, we show that all singularities can be alleviated. In theory therefore a singularity-free composite can be obtained.

Keywords

anisotropic elasticity, stress singularities, cylindrically uniform, inhomogeneous materials, bimaterials, cracks, notches, wedges.