Free-Edge Stress Singularity in a Two-Dimensional Unidirectional Viscoelastic Laminate Model

This paper concerns the stress singularity at the interface corner between the perfectly bonded fiber and the matrix of a unidirectional two-dimensional laminate model subjected to a uniform transverse tensile strain. The matrix is assumed to be a linear viscoelastic material. The standard Laplace transform and the Mellin transform techniques are employed to get the characteristic equation and the order of singularity is obtained numerically for a given viscoelastic model. The time-domain boundary element method is used to investigate the behavior of stresses for the whole interface. It is shown that the order of singularity increases with time while the free-edge stress intensity factor is relaxed with time.