sudden fracture is one of the major failure modes in brittle materials. plexiglass (polymethyl methacrylate) is a well known brittle polymer, widely used in various industries. many types of notches, particularly v-shaped notches, are sometimes used in the components made of plexiglass. these notches can dramatically decrease the load bearing capacity of components due to the concentration of s...

the cracked brazilian disc (cbd) specimen is widely used in order to determine mode-i/ii and mixed-mode fracture toughness of a rock medium. in this study, the stress intensity factor (sif) on the crack-tip in this specimen is calculated for various geometrical crack conditions using the extended-finite element method (x-fem). this method is based upon the finite element method (fem). in this m...

The cracked Brazilian disc (CBD) specimen is widely used in order to determine mode-I/II and mixed-mode fracture toughness of a rock medium. In this study, the stress intensity factor (SIF) on the crack-tip in this specimen is calculated for various geometrical crack conditions using the extended-finite element method (X-FEM). This method is based upon the finite element method (FEM). In this m...

Failures in composite materials occur mainly due to interlaminar fracture, also called delamination, between laminates. This indicates that characterizing interlaminar fracture toughness is the most effective factor in the fracture of composite materials. This study reports investigation on mixed-mode interlaminar fracture behaviour in woven carbon fibre/polyetherimide (CF/PEI) thermoplastic co...

A 2-dimensional, elastic-plastic finite element model has been developed to simulate plasticity induced crack closure in slanted and deflected cracks growing outside the small scale yielding (SSY) regime. The finite element model allows for contact between deformable surfaces to capture the complex contact interaction between the crack faces. Coulomb’s friction law has been used to model fricti...

A nonlinear elastic foundation model has been developed to predict the mixed-mode (modes I and II) delamination failure of laminated composites. Two types of nonlinear elastic foundations were used to represent pure mode I and pure mode II components of the material failure ahead of the crack tip. One is a tension spring foundation for mode I component and the other is a shear spring foundation...

An experimental evaluation of mixed mode fracture tests conducted on adhesively bonded wood specimens using a dual actuator load frame is presented. This unit allows the fracture mode mixity to be easily varied during testing of a given specimen, providing improved consistency, accuracy, and ease of testing over a range of loading modes. Double cantilever beam (DCB) type specimens made of south...