Fracture of a pair of collinear cracks in various materials, such as an isotropic strip, an orthotropic strip, a bonded isotropic adhesive layer, and sandwiched orthotropic layers, is investigated. The crack surfaces are subjected to an arbitrary opening pressure p(x). The problems are formulated in terms of Fredholm integral equation of the second kind by making use the techniques of Fourier transform and finite Hilbert transform. In case of uniform opening pressure p(x) = [sigma], exact expressions for the stress intensity factors and the shape of deformed crack are obtained. Numerical calculations are carried out to study the effects of various boundary geometries and material properties on the fracture of the chosen materials
