M Shameli - Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Bonab Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bonab, Iran
N Choupani - Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Sahand, Tabriz, Iran

In this paper experimental and numerical investigation of the interlaminar fracture behavior of woven glassepoxy composite is performed under static mixed-mode loading, using a specially developed fixture. Woven glass/epoxy composite sheet were produced by hand lay-up method and post-cured in an autoclave set. Butterfly samples wereprepared by saw water machine. Mixed-mode fracture tests from pure mode I to pure mode II were performed. By using of the finite-element simulations were done by ABAQUS, non-dimensional stress intensity factors of butterflysample were computed and a polynomial fit was proposed to evaluate the stress intensity factors of an interlaminar crack subjected to various mixed-mode loadings using new designed fixture. The results show that the composite material used in this study is tougher in shear loading conditions and weaker in tensile loadings.

Interlaminar mixed-mode fracture, New loading device, Stress intensity factor, Woven composite