Experimental Determination of Translaminar Fracture Toughness of a woven glass epoxy composite Using New Fixture

Cracks in composite structures are the most common damages. For example, cracks in thickness direction (translaminar fracture) would be due to inadvertent impact of the projectile with the aerospace structures. Most of studies, so far, aimed at studying the interlaminar crack propagation and emergence of the delamination phenomenon. In this paper, in an attempt to study the translaminar crack propagation of composites, test specimens were prepared in the form of butterfly from a woven glass-epoxy composite by hand layup and the autoclave process. Experimental fracture tests were performed in the first mode, mixed-mode and the pure second mode by changing the loading angle, using a specially developed fixture, based on Arcan. Load versus displacement curves were obtained. Using critical loads of the tests and the dimensionless stress intensity factors, obtained from the finite element analysis by ABAQUS software, translaminar fracture toughness of the composite was determined. As the result, it can be seen that the opening mode translaminar fracture toughness is larger than the shearing mode toughness. This means that translaminar cracked specimen is tougher in tensile loading condition and weaker in shear. Finite element analysis was performed using effective elastic properties of the glass epoxy composite obtained from a homogenized woven composite model based on micromechanics. The effect of laminate thickness on the translaminar fracture toughness behavior of the glass epoxy composite has been studied.