Characterization of the translaminar fracture Cohesive Law

Quasi-brittle materials such as fibre-reinforced composite materials develop a relatively large Fracture Process Zone where material toughening mechanisms such as matrix cracking, fibre-bridging and fibre pull-outs take place. The damage onset and damage propagation are well defined from a cohesive model point of view, although no standard procedure has been yet developed to characterize the translaminar Cohesive Law. The present work proposes...