Advanced mechanical and structural applications require accurate assessment of the damage state of materials during the fabrications as well as during the service. Due to the complex nature of the internal structure of the material, composites including the layered composite often fail in a variety of modes. The failure modes very often are influenced by the local material properties that may develop in time under heat and pressure, local defect distribution, process induced residual stress, and other factors. Consider a laminate composite in plane stress conditions, multi-layered beam bonded to planes having shear modulus G{sub}I and Poissons ratio v{sub}I respectively, subjected to bending. The behaviour of the cracks depends on the cracks configuration, size, orientation, material properties, and loading characteristic. The fracture mechanics problem will be attacked using the photoelastic visualisation of the fracture events in a model structure. The proposed experimental method will developed fracture mechanics tools for a layered composite fracture problem.
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