SH-wave diffraction by an interfacial flaw in monoclinic bimaterials

A system of incident, reflected and transmitted plane SH-waves is diffracted by an interface flaw in two dissimilar linearly elastic anisotropic half-spaces. The half-space solids have single planes of material symmetry. These coincide, but the two sets of principal material axes in the common plane have arbitrary orientations with respect to each other and to the interface. Exact transient solutions show the effects of material properties and orientation. Increasing the degree of non-orthotropy causes the maximum and minimum shear wave speeds in each solid to deviate more from the isotropic limit. For a non-orthotropic/isotropic bimaterial, this also causes the dynamic stress intensity factor to decrease, and the factor always falls below the factor value arising for a homogeneous solid with properties identical to those of the isotropic constituent. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.