Mixed Mode cohesive law with interface dilatation

Experimental investigations of adhesive joints and fibre composites have shown that under Mode II cracking, the fracture process induces a displacement normal to the fracture plane. This effect can be attributed e.g. to roughness of the fracture surface under dominating tangential crack face displacements. As the crack faces displace relatively to each other, the roughness asperities ride on top of each other and result in an opening (dilatation) in the normal direction. Furthermore, the interaction of the crack surfaces in the contact zone gives rise to compressive normal stresses and frictional shear stresses opposing the crack face displacements. A phenomenological Mixed Mode cohesive zone law, derived from a potential function, is developed to describe the above mentioned fracture behaviour under monotonic opening. The interface dilatation introduces two new lengths. The cohesive law is implemented in the commercial finite element program Abaqus. The model is validated and tested against experimental results under various mode mixities. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.