Interlaminar Fracture Toughness Of Composite Laminates

Fracture mechanics approaches are commonly used for modeling the growth of delamination in composite structures. The resistance to the growth of cracks between layers is expressed by something called material fracture toughness. This is basically the energy needed to make a crack grow from an initial flaw in the material. The crack can grow in three different ways:

1. Tensile opening, also known as Mode I.
2. Sliding shear, which is Mode II.
3. Tearing shear, known as Mode III.

We use symbols to represent the fracture toughness in each of these modes: G_IC for Mode I, G_IIC for Mode II, and G_IIIC for Mode III.

Further Reading

• Fracture toughness (Wikipedia)
• Composite material (Wikipedia)