Applying modified Weibull failure theory to bimaterial specimen under thermal loading

Failure of a thermally loaded bimaterial specimen was investigated in this research. A high-stress gradient due to thermal loading occurs around the free edge of the interface of the bimaterial specimen. This high-stress gradient plays an important role in the failure of the specimen. The Weibull failure theory has been shown to be unable to account for high-stress gradients in externally loaded bimaterial specimens. The objective of this work is to develop a weight function method to calculate the effective stress intensity factors in the vicinity of a high-stress gradient in a thermally loaded bimaterial specimen, and to develop a modified Weibull failure theory to handle the high-stress gradient. It was found that the modified Weibull failure theory generated monotonous trends for the probability of failure with respect to increasing Weibull moduli, as demonstrated in the literature.