Abstract
In this paper, the effect of the variations of material combinations on the fracture behaviour of an arbitrarily inclined crack terminated at a bimaterial interface was investigated. By using the complex variable method, a comprehensive analysis of the state of stress and stress intensity factors (SIFs) was performed. The digital photoelastic technique was also employed to verify the analytical results. To ensure the accuracy in the process of determining SIFs, a visual check between experimentally obtained images and theoretically reconstructed images was performed. It was concluded that far-field effects usually found in the homogeneous case had to be included in the stress equations. © 1995, Institution of Mechanical Engineers. All rights reserved.