Singular Solutions of Multi-Material Wedges Under Thermomechanical Loading

Multi-material wedges associated with free edges, matrix and interface cracks, adhesive joints, skin-stiffener attachments and other types of discontinuities in composite structures generally incur singular stress fields at the vertex of the wedge. Accurate elasticity solutions of the wedge under thermo-mechanical loads may be obtained by combining eigensolutions with appropriate coefficients and a particular solution associate with the loading. When the wedge is under a temperature load, or when the two exterior edges of the wedge are subjected to non-vanishing traction loads, the elasticity solution may differ significantly from the asymptotic solution as given by the dominant singular term. In such cases, a failure criterion in terms of the asymptotic solution or the stress intensity factors may not be appropriate.