Plastic Exfoliation of a Fiber with Square Cross Section Under the Action of Shear Loading in the Presence of Interface Cracks

We study the development of plastic strains localized on the surface of a rigid fiber with square cross section in a perfect elastoplastic matrix. Two identical interface cracks originate from the opposite vertices of the fiber. The strains are caused by a shear load parallel to one of the diagonals of the fiber connecting the origins of the cracks. It is shown that, in the case where the length of an interface crack does not exceed a half of the length of the fiber edge, the plastic strains can be localized only on the inclusion–matrix interface. For the cracks shorter than the half length of the fiber edge, we determine the dependence of lengths of the strips of plastic exfoliation on the load. It is shown that the plastic strips cannot completely cover the surface of the fiber on the continuation of the crack.