Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Mode II fracture testing method for highly orthotropic materials like wood

  • Published:
International Journal of Fracture Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper a mode II fracture testing method has been developed for wood from analytical, experimental and numerical investigations. Analytical results obtained by other researchers showed that the specimen geometry and loading type used for the proposed mode II testing method results in only mode II stress intensity and no mode I stress intensity at the crack tip. Experiments have been carried out to determine mode II fracture toughness K IIC and fracture energy G IIF from the test data collected from both spruce (pice abies) and poplar (populus nigra) specimens. It was found that there existed a very good relation between fracture toughness KIIC and fracture energy G IIF when the influence of orthotropic stiffness E II * in mode II was taken into account. It verified that for this mode II testing method the formula of LEFM can be employed for calculating mode II fracture toughness even for highly orthotropic materials like wood. In the numerical studies for the tested spruce specimen, the crack propagation process, stress and strain fields in front of crack tips and the stress distributions along the ligament have been investigated in detail. It can be seen that the simulated crack propagating process along the ligament is a typical shear cracking pattern and the development of cracks along the ligament is due to shear stress concentrations at the crack tips of the specimen. It has been shown that this mode II fracture testing method is suitable for measuring mode II fracture toughness K IIC for highly orthotropic materials like wood.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. ANSI/ASTM E399-71, A Standard Testing Method of Plane Strain Fracture Toughness of Metal Material, Annual Book of Standards, Part 31, Philadelphia, Pa (1971).

  2. BS5767: 1979, Methods for Crack Opening Displacement (COD) Testing, BSI, London (1979).

  3. RILEM Technical Committee 50-FMC, RILEM Draft Recommendation, Determination of the Fracture Energy of Mortar and Concrete by Means of Three-Point Bend Tests on Notched Beams, Materials and Structures 18(106) (1985) 285–290.

    Google Scholar 

  4. ISRM Suggested Methods for Determining the Fracture Toughness of Rock. F.Ouchterlouy, Working Group Coodiuater, International Journal of Rock Mechanics, Mineral Science and Geomechanics Abstracts 25 (1988).

  5. G. Valentin, Short Presentation of Mode II Specimens, Workshop on Determination of Fracture Properties of Wood-especially in Mode II and Mixed Mode I and II, Bordeaux, France, April 07–08, 1992.

  6. J.F. Murphy, Mode II Wood Test Specimen: Beam with Center Slit, Journal of Testing and Evaluation, JTEVA 16(4) (1988) 364–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. J.D. Barrett and R.O. Foschi, Mode II Stress-Intensity Factors for Cracked Wood Beams, Engineering Fracture Mechanics 9 (1977) 371–378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. A.J. Russell and K.N. Street, Factors Affecting the Interlaminar Fracture Energy of Graphite/Epoxy Laminates, Progress in Science and Engineering of Composites, T. Hayashi et al. (eds.) ICCM-IV, Tokyo (1982) 279–286.

    Google Scholar 

  9. S. Mall and J.H. Mol, Mode II Fracture Toughness Testing of a Fiber-Reinforced Ceramic Composite, Engineering Fracture Mechanics 38(1) (1991) 55–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. K. Liu, B. Barr and J. Watkins, Mode II Fracture of Fibre Reinforced Concrete Materials, The International Journal of Cement Composites and Lightweight Concrete 7(2) (1985) 93–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. G. Valentin, L. Boström, P.J. Gustafsson, A. Ranta-Mannus and S. Gowda, Application of Fracture Mechanics to Timber Structures: RILEM state-of-the-art report. VTT, ESPOO (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  12. H.A. Richard, A New Compact Shear Specimen, International Journal of Fracture 17(5) (1981) R105-R107.

    Google Scholar 

  13. D.L. Jones and D.B. Chisholm, An Investigation of the Edge-Sliding Mode in Fracture Mechanics, Engineering Fracture Mechanics 7 (1975) 261–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. D.B. Chisholm and D.L. Jones, An Analytical and Experimental Stress Analysis of a Practical Mode II Fracture Test Specimen, Experimental Mechanics 1 (1977) 7–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. S. Cramer and A. Pugel, Compact Shear Specimen for Wood Mode II Fracture Investigations, International Journal of Fracture 35 (1987) 163–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. L. Boström, Method for Determination of the Softening Behavior of wood and the Applicability of a Nonlinear Fracture Mechanics Model, Doctoral thesis, Report TVBM-1012, Lund, Sweden, 1992.

  17. State-of-Art Report by ACI Committee 446, Fracture Mechanics, Fracture Mechanics of Concrete: Concepts, Models and Determination of Material Properties, in Fracture Mechanics of Concrete Structures, Z.P. Bazant (ed.) Elsevier Applied Science, London and New York (1992).

    Google Scholar 

  18. J.F. Murphy, Strength of Wood Beams with End Splits, Forest Products, Madison, USA, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Product Research Laboratory, Report 347 (1979).

    Google Scholar 

  19. P.S. Vanderkley, Mode I-Mode II Delamination Fracture Toughness of a Unidirectional Graphite/Epoxy Composite, Master of Science thesis, Texas A & M University, 1981.

  20. G.S. Giare, Fracture Toughness of Unidirectional Fibre Reinforced Composites in Mode II, Engineering Fracture Mechanics 20(1) (1984) 11–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. E.M. Wu, Application of Fracture Mechanics to Anisotropic Plates, Journal of Applied Mechanics (Dec. 1967) 967–974.

  22. N. Iosipescu, New Accurate Procedure for Single Shear Testing of Metals, Journal of Materials 2(3) (1967) 537–566.

    Google Scholar 

  23. M. Kumosa and D. Hull, Mixed-Mode Fracture of Composites Using Iosipescu Shear Test, International Journal of Fracture 35 (1987) 83–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. A. Bansal and M. Kumosa, Experimental and Analytical Studies of Failure Modes in Iosipescu Specimens under Biaxial Loadings, Journal of Composite Materials 29(3) (1995) 334–357.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. M. Arrea and A.R. Ingraffea, Mixed-Mode Crack Propagation in Mortar and Concrete, Department of Structural Engineering Report 81-13, Cornell University, 1981.

  26. Z.P. Bazant and P.A. Pfeiffer, Tests of Shear Fracture and Strain Softening in Concrete, Proceedings of the 2nd Symposium on the Interaction of Non-Nuclear Munitions with Structures, April 15–19, 1985, Panama City Beach, Florida.

  27. Z.P. Bazant and P.A. Pfeiffer, Shear Fracture Test of Concrete, Materials and Structures (RILEM) 110(19) (1986) 111–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. S.E. Swartz, L.W. Lu, L.D. Tang and T.M.E. Refai, Mode II Fracture Parameter Estimates for Concrete from Beam Specimens, Experimental Mechanics (June 1988) 146–153.

  29. A.R. Ingraffea and M.J. Panthaki, Analysis of ‘Shear Fracture’ Tests of Concrete Beams, Finite Element Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Structures, ASCE, Tokyo (1985) 151–173.

    Google Scholar 

  30. E. Schlangen, Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Fracture Processes in Concrete, HERON 38(2) (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  31. B. Barr, A. Hasso and S. Khalifa, A Study of Mode II Shear Fracture of Notched Beams, Cylinders and Cores, Proceedings, SEM-RILEM International Conference on Fracture of Concrete and Rock, S.P. Shah and S.E. Swartz (eds), Houston (1987) 370–382.

  32. B. Barr and M. Derradj, Numerical Study of a Shear (Mode II) Type Test Specimen Geometry, Engineering Fracture Mechanics 35(1/2/3) (1990) 171–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. A.H. Mattock and N.M. Hawkins, Shear Transfer in Reinforced Concrete-Recent Research, PCI Journal (March–April 1972) 55–75.

  34. J.G. Williams and M.W. Birch, Mixed Mode Fracture in Anisotropic Media, in Cracks and Fracture, ASTM STP610 (1976) 125–137.

  35. L.J. Broutman, The Optimization of the Properties of GRP Rigidized Thermoplastics, in Technical Proceedings of 32nd Annual Technical Conference, Reinforced Plastics/Composites Institute, The Society of the Plastic Industry, Inc., Washington, D.C., February 8–11, 1977, Section 1-B, pp. 1–3.

  36. P.J. Pellicane, Ultimate Tensile Strength Analysis of Wood, Ph.D.thesis, Department of Forest and Wood Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, 1980.

  37. H. Tada, P. Paris and G. Irwin, The Stress Analysis of Cracks Handbook, (2nd edn.,) Paris Productions Incorporated, St. Louis, (1985).

    Google Scholar 

  38. S. Mall, J.F. Murphy and J.E. Shottafer, Criterion for Mixed Mode Fracture in Wood, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE 109(3) (1983) 680–690.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. M.P. Luong, Tensile and Shear Strength of Concrete and Rock, Engineering Fracture Mechanics 35(1/2/3) (1990) 127–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. H.A. Richard and M. Kuna, Theoretical and Experimental Study of Superimposed Fracture Mode I, II and III, Engineering Fracture Mechanics 35(6) (1990) 949–950.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. L. Banks-Sills and M. Arcan, An Edge-Cracked Mode II Fracture Specimen, Experimental Mechanics (Sept. 1983) 257–261.

  42. M. Irobe and S.-Y. Pen, Mixed-Mode and Mode II Fracture in of Concrete, in Fracture Mechanics of Concrete Structures, Z.P. Bazant (ed.), Elsevier Applied Science, London and New York (1992) 719–726.

    Google Scholar 

  43. J.R. Rice, A Path Independent Integral and the Approximate Analysis of Strain Concentrations by Notches and Cracks, Journal of Applied Mechanics 35(2) (1968) 379–386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. D. Radaj and S. Zhang, Stress Intensity Factors for Spot Welds Between Plates of Unequal Thickness, Engineering Fracture Mechanics 39(2) (1991) 391–413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. L.M. Keer, Strees Analysis for Bonded Layers, Journal of Applied Mechanics (Sept. 1974) 679–683.

  46. O.S. Yahsi and A.E. Göcmen, Contact Problem for Two Perfectly Bonded Dissimilar Infinite Strips, International Journal of Fracture 34 (1987) 162–177.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. L.M. Keer and Q. Guo, Stress Analysis for Symmetrically Loaded Bonded Layers, International Journal of Fracture 43 (1990) 69–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. L.M. Keer and Q. Guo, Stress Analysis for Thin Bonded Layers, Advances in Fracture Research 4 (1989) 3073–3080.

    Google Scholar 

  49. G.C. Sih, P.C. Paris and G.R. Irwin, On Cracks in Rectilinearly Anisotropic Bodies, International Journal of Fracture 1 (1965) 189–203.

    Google Scholar 

  50. F.P. Kollmann and W.A. GôtéJr., Principles of Wood Science and Technology (I), Solid Wood, Spring, Berlin, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  51. A. Hillerborg, M. Modern and P.E. Petersson, Analysis of Cracks Formation and Crack Growth in Concrete by Means of Fracture Mechanics and Finite Elements, Cement and Concrete Research 6 (1976) 773–782.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. G.R. DeBaise, Mechanics and Morphology of Wood Shear Fracture, Ph.D.thesis, State University College of Forestry, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, 1970.

  53. L. Boström, Measurement of the Mode II Softening Behavior of Wood. Workshop on Determination of Fracture Properties of Wood-especially in Mode II and Mixed Mode I and II, Bordeaux, France (April 1992).

  54. V. Cervenka and R. Pukl, SBETA-Computer Program for Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Structures in Plane Stress State, Institute of EngIneering Materials, Stuttgart University in Cooperation with the Klokner Institute of the Czech Technical University in Prague 1992.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, 116024, Dalian, China

    Shilang Xu

  2. Institute of Construction Materials, Stuttgart University, 70550, Stuttgart, Germany

    Hans W. Reinhardt

  3. Department of Timber Structures, National University of Civil Engineering, 129337, Moscow, Russia

    Murat Gappoev

Authors
  1. Shilang Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hans W. Reinhardt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Murat Gappoev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Xu, S., Reinhardt, H.W. & Gappoev, M. Mode II fracture testing method for highly orthotropic materials like wood. Int J Fract 75, 185–214 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00037082

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00037082

Search

Navigation