Beam analysis of the double cantilever beam specimen with fibre bridging

The fibre bridging phenomenon commonly seen in double cantilever beam tests is considered an artifact of the standard unidirectional specimen. Therefore, it limits the scope of the test to the measurement of the critical strain energy release rate G I c for crack initiation. This paper presents a beam model based on a linear traction–separation law that has been shown to be a good approximation to the early stages of fibre bridging. The present...