Determination of Mode I interlaminar Fracture Toughness of C/SiC Composite Using Taped Double Cantilever Beam and J Integral

Due to the low in-plane strength of C/SiC ceramic matrix composite (CMC), arm failure may occur in the classical double cantilever beam (DCB) test for determination of the mode I interlaminar fracture toughness. A taped DCB (TDCB) is designed to avoid this undesired failure mode. Exact and explicit J integral for the TDCB is derived and applied to measure the interlaminar fracture toughness of CMC. The present TDCB and J integral are demonstrated to be simple and reliable for determination of the interlaminar fracture toughness, without visual measurement of the delamination length and complex data reduction.