EFFECTIVE ELASTIC PROPERTIES OF AN ANISOTROPIC MATERIAL WITH ARBITRARILY ORIENTED INTERACTING CRACKS

EFFECTIVE MODULI of a two-dimensional matrix of general anisotropy, containing an arbitrary orientational distribution of cracks, are found. For non-interacting cracks, the results are rigorous and are given in closed form. For interacting cracks, extensive computer experiments-numerical solutions of the interaction problem for a number of sample crack arrays-show that the approximation of non-interacting cracks remains accurate at high crack densities, provided that mutual positions of cracks are random. This is explained by cancellation of the competing interaction effects of shielding and amplification similarly to the case of cracks in the isotropic matrix (Kachanov, 1992, Appl. Mech. Rev. 45, 304-335).