Effect of Crack Propagation Directions on the Interlaminar Fracture Toughness of Carbon/Epoxy Composite Materials

Abstract

Interlaminar fracture toughness of carbon/epoxy composite materials has been studied under tensile and flexural loading by the use of width tapered double cantilever beam(WTDCB) and end notched flexure(ENF) specimens. This study has significantly examined the effect of various interfacial ply orientation, and crack propagation direction, in terms of critical strain energy release rate through experiments. Twelve differently layered laminates were investigated. The data reduction for evaluating the fracture energy is based on compliance method and beam theory. Beam theory is used to analyze the effect of crack propagation direction. The geometry and lay-up sequence of specimens are considered various conditions such as skewness parameter, beam volume, and so on. The results show that the fiber bridging occurred due to the non-midplane crack propagation and causes the difference of fracture energy evaluated by both methods. For safer and more reliable composite structures, we obtain the optimal stacking sequence from initial fracture energy in each mode.