Influence of anisotropy on the limit load of bi-material welded cracked joints subject to tension

A plane-strain upper bound limit load solution for bi-material welded joints subject tension is found. It is assumed that each material obeys Hill's orthotropic yield criterion and one of the principal axes of orthotropy coincides with the tensile direction. A crack of arbitrary length is located at the bi-material interface. The solution is based on a simple discontinuous kinematically admissible velocity field and is an extension of the corresponding solution for the specimen made of isotropic materials. The main purpose of the paper is to demonstrate that the influence of anisotropy on the magnitude of limit loads may be much more significant than other effects.