Delamination Specimens for Orthotropic Materials

Abstract

A semi-infinite crack in an infinite strip of orthotropic material is analyzed. Analytic expressions for mixed-mode stress intensity factors are derived with only parameter undetermined, which is then extracted from numerical solutions to integral equations. The results are relatively simple and complete, and provide the flexibility to simulate a wide range of practical problems, such as fracture specimens and edge delamination phenomena of woods and fiber-reinforced composites. As an illustration, specimens with transverse splitting from notches are analyzed based on the general solution. The validity of using solutions for an isotropic material to calibrate some testing geometries of orthotropic materials is discussed.