Experimental study on mode I fracture of fibredux unidirectional prepeg

Abstract

Extensive use of composite materials for different structures imposes a thorough study of this type of materials. Of interest in structural design, like tailoring the composite wing box beam to increase performances while preserving proper airworthiness, are the failure mechanisms and delamination of common composite materials. Since the fracture testing of fiber reinforced composites is still an open research domain, the present paper investigates the delamination of unidirectional carbon-fiber reinforced composite material. The opening-mode interlaminar fracture toughness is studied using the simple beam theory and the corrected beam theory. Quasi static tests are made on double cantilever beam according to the standards. In order to measure the crack growth, a high resolution camera was used. The test data and the video recorder measurements have proved that the corrected beam theory is more useful for energy release rate calculation.