Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Mixed-Mode Fracture of Polyester Resin

This paper investigates Polyester resin’s mixed-mode fracture behaviour experimentally and numerically; and evaluates the amount of fracture toughness for this material. Experiments were applied on butterfly Arcan specimens. By varying the loading angle from 0° to 90°, pure mode-I, pure mode-II and a wide range of mixed-mode data (specially critical loads) were obtained experimentally. To determine the stress intensity correction factors (KI and KII) of Polyester resin specimen, two dimensional finite-element analysis was performed. By employing experimentally measured critical loads and the aid of the finite-element method, mixed-mode fracture toughness for the Polyester resin was determined. Experiments show that values of critical loads are increases by increasing the loading angle from 30° to 90°, thus specimens has more resistant to failure in the mode-II than the mode-I.

Keywords:

Polyester resin , Arcan test specimen , mixed-mode fracture toughness