Influence of material anisotropy on the mechanics of surface damage

The problem of multiple cracks originating at free surface (surface damage) in an anisotropic material is considered. We focus on the effect of material anisotropy on the mechanics of crack interactions – in particular, on the suppressing effect of interactions on crack nucleation and growth under the tensile loading (stress shielding). Importantly, this effect may change to the opposite one of enhancement, under the shear loading. These effects strongly depend on the material anisotropy. Calculations were performed for the orthotropic materials and the effect of anisotropy was examined by case studies of specific configurations that included comparison with the case of the isotropic material.