Stress intensity factors for an interface crack between an epoxy and aluminium composite plate

A cracked composite specimen, comprised of an epoxy and an aluminium plate, was fractured under a tensile load. In this paper, two crack configurations were investigated. The first was an artificial center crack positioned in the epoxy plate parallel to the material interface. The other was for two edge cracks in the epoxy plate, again, parallel to the interface. A tensile test was carried out by gradually increasing the applied load and it was verified that the cracks always moved suddenly in an outward direction from the interface. The d/a ratio was gradually reduced to zero, and it was confirmed that the maximum stress intensity factor value for the artificial center crack, , approached that of an artificial interface crack, (where: 2a is the crack length and d is the offset between the crack and interface). The same phenomenon was also verified for the edge cracks. Specifically, when the offset, d, was reduced to zero, the maximum stress intensity factor value, , approached that of an artificial interface edge crack.