Crack propagation and fracture toughness of solid balsa used for cores of sandwich composites

To better understand the suitability of balsa wood as a core material for sandwich composites, this paper presents a detailed study of the fracture properties of balsa. The experiments looked at mode I, mode II, and mixed-mode fracture with crack growth both parallel and perpendicular to the wood grain direction. The experiments monitored toughness as a function of crack growth to record crack resistance or R curves. The mode I toughness was...