Effect of interfacial energy combined with geometrical nonlinearity on the finite fracture analysis of composite single-lap joints

Abstract This paper investigates the effects of interface energy and geometrical nonlinearity on the fracture behavior of composite single-lap joints. The physical and mathematical model is based on the finite fracture mechanics and the interface elasticity. An experiment-based approach is utilized to determine the unknown interfacial parameters. A stress-energy coupled criterion is employed to predict the failure load based on the framework of finite fracture mechanics. Solutions are validated through the comparisons of experimental data against the predicted results from the present approach. The results predicted agree well with the experimental data when the geometrical nonlinearity and the interface energy are considered. The numerical investigations reveal that both mode I and mode II incremental energy release rates are overestimated in the linear analysis, mode II incremental energy release rates about twice as much energy as mode I, the interface energy will make the single-lap joints more prone to mode I fracture failure .