An Analytical Investigation of Delamination Front Curvature in Double Cantilever Beam Specimens

An analytical investigation is conducted to determine the shape of a growing delamination and the distribution of the energy release rate along the delamination front in a laminated composite double cantilever beam specimen. Distributions of the energy release rate for specimens with straight delamination fronts and delamination front con tours for delaminations whose growth is governed by the fracture criterion that G = G c at all points are...