STEADY-STATE MOTION OF A CRACK IN A UNIDIRECTIONAL COMPOSITE.

Steady-state propagation of free crack that moves perpendicularly to the fibers in a discrete unidirectional composite is considered. The long-wave approximation of the resultant solution describes the motion of the crack in a homogeneous medium with certain effective characteristics that are obtained by averaging the elastic and inertial properties of the fibers and binder over the period of the structure. Comparison of the exact solution and the long-wave approximation yields the relationship between the effective surface energy, characterizing the resistance to cracking of a homogeneous medium, and the structural parameters of the composite and the rate of the crack.