“Mode I interlaminar fracture toughness and the factors affecting” was discussed at the event which is the second part of a new series on fracture following on from the first event Is fracture toughness applicable as a material property for composites? on November 14^th 2023.

The previous series on strength consisted of six workshops on Defining Strength in October 2020, Measuring Tensile Strength in March 2021, UD Compression Strength in October 2021, Shear Strength in March 2022,  Measuring Transverse Strengths in October 2022, and Multidirectional Laminates in March 2023.

The workshop comprised a topic presentation by Federico Paris, followed by a series of short presentations and further discussion with people from across the globe participating.

For those who could not attend or would like to rewatch the content, a recording of the workshop is available to watch on the Bristol Composites Institutes YouTube channel. The PowerPoint presentations and the paper summarising the topic are available for download via the links below.

Mode I Toughness Paper (PDF, 239kB)

Workshop Programme: 

5-minute presentations

3.1 Panayiotis Tsokanas (PDF, 1,041kB) (KU Leuven): Experimental challenges in DCB testing of thin composite laminates 3.2 John Montesano (PDF, 1,071kB) (University of Waterloo): A new test specimen to extract the traction-separation response for Mode I delamination 3.3 Bodo Fiedler (PDF, 1,533kB) (Technical University of Hamburg): New method for crack length determination in DCB tests based on electrical capacitance change 3.4 Thanasis Chatziathanasiou (PDF, 605kB) (KU Leuven): Is edge monitoring sufficient for DCB measurements of composites? In-situ X-ray computed tomography tackles the question 3.5 Lincy Pyl (PDF, 1,885kB) (Vrije Universiteit Brussel): Experimental analysis of the delamination behaviour of 3D-printed unidirectional carbon fibre-reinforced polyamide laminates under mode I 3.6 Bent Sørensen (PDF, 477kB) (Technical University of Denmark): Fracture mechanics testing beyond LEFM: Fracture mechanics testing to determine cohesive laws 3.7 John Botsis (PDF, 4,462kB) (EPFL): Mode I Fracture toughness and delamination of layered composites 3.8 Antonio Blázquez (PDF, 927kB) (University of Sevilla): Determination of Interlaminar fracture toughness from direct laminates under tension 3.9 Jesús Justo (PDF, 440kB) (University of Sevilla): Composites interfibres toughnesses associated with longitudinal and transverse directions to the fibres 3.10 Torquato Garulli (PDF, 866kB) (University of Girona): Interlaminar fracture tests: why we love UD specimens, why we hate multidirectional ones, and can this change?