Experimental And Numerical Investigation Of In-Plane Interlaminar Fracture Of Woven Glass-Epoxy Composite Under Mixed-Mode Loading Conditions

Polymeric composite materials are widely used in aerospace, marine, automobile and other industries. These materials are often subjected to different defects and damages from in-service and manufacturing conditions. Interlaminar fracture or delamination is the most important of these defects. In this paper numerical and experimental study of the interlaminar mixed-mode fracture behavior of woven glass epoxy composite is performed using recently modified Arcan fixture. Mixed-mode fracture tests from pure mode I to pure mode II were performed by varying the loading angle, α from 0o to 90o. Finite-element analyses were done by ABAQUS and mode-I and mode-II non-dimensional stress intensity factors, fI (a/w) and fII (a/w) respectively, were obtained for various a/w ratios and different loading angles (mixed-mode). As the result, it can be seen that the shearing mode interlaminar fracture toughness is larger than the opening mode. This means that interlaminar cracked specimen is tougher in shear loading condition and weaker in tensile.