Lab Report

Fracture mechanics
Double cantilever beam test

Name: NCS Rahul

ID no: 2022H1410112H

Lab date: 25 Feb 2023

Report Submission date: 06 Mar 2023

Birla Institute of technology Pilani,

Hyderabad campus, Hyderabad Telangana
 Double Cantilever Beam Test

Introduction

Composite structures have many useful applications in the field of aerospace, civil infrastructure and
construction. De-lamination is one of the major failure modes. Susceptibility to delamination is one of the
major weaknesses of many advanced laminated composite structures. Knowledge of a laminated composite
material's resistance to interlaminar fracture is useful for product development and material selection.
Furthermore, a measurement of the Mode I interlaminar fracture toughness, independent of specimen
geometry or method of load introduction, is useful for establishing design allowances used in damage
tolerance analyses of composite structures made from these materials. This test method describes the
determination of the opening Mode I interlaminar fracture toughness, GIc, of continuous fiber-reinforced
composite materials using the double cantilever beam (DCB) specimen

We perform DCB test to find how much the layers of the composite material gets de laminated, that is,
shearing off from the matrix in presence of a predetermined initial delamination. The test follows ASTM
D5528 standards. This test also known as inter laminar fracture toughness test , mode 1. ASTM D5528 is a
testing specification that determines the opening Mode I interlaminar fracture toughness of continuous
fiber-reinforced composite materials using the modified beam theory or the compliance calibration method.
The sample used is a double cantilever beam (DCB) specimen, which is a rectangular, unidirectional
laminated composite specimen containing a non adhesive film on the midplane that serves as a
delamination initiator. Delamination growth is characterized by strain energy release rate and the way the
load is applied (opening or tensile load per Mode I).
2) Test requirements and Test Parameters
The Inter Laminar fracture toughness test is carried out universal Testing Machine (UTM)
using flexural test fixture. For this test the specimen is made of Carbon fiber epoxy
composite. We use the specimens of thin sheets. The dimension of the specimen is prepared
according to the ASTM D5528 standards. As per the standards, the initial delamination length
is of 50 mm length and 25 to 30 mm of width.

Parameters

The specimen is placed in the anvils which are at both the ends of the specimen from
the point of application of the load with a 5 KN load cell at the bottom. The loading is done
up to 5 mm of the further crack from the initial crack length. The speed of the loading is in
between 0.5 mm to 5mm per width.

Requirements

• Universal testing machine

• Flexural Test Fixture
• Vernier calliper
• 1 Specimen of Carbon fiber epoxy composite material

3) Experimental Result

The following results have obtained while testing the given specimen

Specimen Elongation at Maximum Strain

maximum force Force in N Energy
mm release rate
1 Carbon fiber 35.3640 12.49 402.93 J/m2
composite
Specimen-1
4) Discussion and Analysis

Inter Laminar fracture toughness test is also known as double cantilever beam because the
the specimen is subjected to transverse loading at the end of the span of the speicmen. The
specimen is fixed between the clamps using the ASTM D5528 standards. The specimen is
subjected to loading with support blocks placed at both bottom and from the top, it is
subjected to the pulling action. During the test we ensure that the crack is propagating
through the center in only direction. Hence we prefer V-notch specimen instead of U-notch,
because the crack propagation from the tip of the U-notch is multi direction, which would
be difficult for us to caliberate the fracture toughness.

Fracture toughness is defined as the ability of the material or the specimen to resist the
fracture in the presence of initial crack. The geometry of the crack should be known to us to
perform further caliberation. Support blocks which are placed on the bottom and over the
top of the specimen are joined by some Adhesive. We make sure that uniform adhesion is
done to avoid errors. The important parameter that we obtain from the fracture is the strain
energy release rate. Which tells us the amount of strain energy released per unit test time. It
is given by the formula.

Strain Energy release rate G = (3*P*δ) in N/mm

Ic (2*b*a)

Where P = Maximum load applied (N)

a = crack length from the tip of the existing crack (mm)
b = width of the specimen (mm)
δ = load point displacement (mm)
 5) Graph
0.7
Carbon fibre
Standard force [MPa] 0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
-5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Strain [mm]

Graph of standard force vs Deformation obtained from Double Cantilever beam test for Carbon fibre composite

6) Salient points

Inter laminar fracture toughness test is performed for the composite material whose initial crack is present and
it’s geometry is known. the disadvantage is that this test is only performed for unidirectional composites.
Because the properties are different along longitudinal and transverse directions. As these properties are
dependent on one another, Hence the results that are obtained are going to be different than what we expected.
To observe the tearing of the specimen clearly, there will be probe in contact to the specimen, which acts as a
camera and it records every instant of time of the test. This also gives a feedback of whether the specimen is
undergoing the test correctly or any error is being occurred during the crack growth.

7) Conclusion

Composite structures have many useful applications in the field of aerospace, civil infrastructure and
construction. De-lamination is one of the major failure modes. Inter-laminar shear stresses are the source of
failure, unique in composite structures. Short beam strength is obtained from this test is used for quality
control and process specification processes. It can also be used for comparative testing of composite
materials, providing that, failures occur consistently in the same mode.
References

1) ASTM D5528 for testing of composite materials

2) William D Callister Jr. Materials science and Engineering
3) William F. Smith, Javad Hashemi Material science and
Engineering