Analysis of mode III interlaminar fracture toughness of laminated composites using a novel testing device

The delamination phenomenon is one of the major failure mechanisms in composite materials formed by the stacking of successive layers. The fracture mode that has been studied the least within this phenomenon is mode III, due to the difficulty its simulation involves. A novel test device is presented in this paper that allows laminated composites to be subjected to this mode of loading. Characterization tests were carried out on two materials...