Abstract
In fiber‐reinforced brittle laminates, crack growth under monotonic tension generally consists of crack tunneling along the weaker ply (usually the 90° ply) followed by plane strain crack growth through the adjacent, more resistant plies (the 0° plies). In this paper, the details of this transition in crack mode are examined. The tunneling crack configuration is generalized to allow the crack to penetrate the 0° ply during tunneling. The effects of crack bridging in the 0° plies on the energetics of tunneling are computed numerically for general cases and combined with analytical results for certain limits. The nature of the transition from tunneling to plane strain cracking is found to depend on the ratio of the toughnesses of the 90° and 0° plies. Implications for laminate design are discussed.
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