Effect of surface elasticity on an interface crack in plane deformations

We consider the effect of surface elasticity on an interface crack between two dissimilar linearly elastic isotropic homogeneous materials undergoing plane deformations. The bi-material is subjected to either remote tension (mode-I) or in-plane shear (mode-II) with the faces of the (interface) crack assumed to be traction-free. We incorporate surface mechanics into the model of deformation by employing a version of the continuum-based surface/interface theory of Gurtin & Murdoch. Using complex variable methods, we obtain a semi-analytical solution valid throughout the entire domain of interest (including at the crack tips) by reducing the problem to a system of coupled Cauchy singular integro-differential equations, which is solved numerically using Chebychev polynomials and a collocation method. It is shown that, among other interesting phenomena, our model predicts finite stress at the (sharp) crack tips and the corresponding stress field to be size-dependent. In particular, we note that, in contrast to the results from linear elastic fracture mechanics, when the bi-material is subjected to uniform far-field stresses (either tension or in-plane shear), the incorporation of surface effects effectively eliminates the oscillatory behaviour of the solution so that the resulting stress fields no longer suffer from oscillatory singularities at the crack tips.