Determination of pure mode-I fracture toughness of multidirectional composite DCB specimens

Strain energy release rate (SERR) along a linear crack front of a multidirectional composite DCB specimen shows an obviously non-uniform distribution, which causes the fracture toughness GIavg measured by experiments smaller than the real GIC, and so leading to a lower estimation of fracture toughness. In this study, based on the numerical model a novel semi-empirical closed-form formula was proposed for determination of pure mode I fracture...