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Residual Strength and Fatigue Lifetime of ... - Solid Mechanics

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Figure 3.8: Crack path for an MMB specimen with H130 core in the face/core interface.<br />

For specimens with H250 core, the crack propagated in the interface for all measured modemixities<br />

as shown in Figure 3.9. In these specimens the fracture toughness increased with<br />

increasing magnitude <strong>of</strong> the negative mode-mixity phase angle at the crack tip similar to the<br />

specimens with PMI <strong>and</strong> H130 cores. Additionally, it was observed that in longer crack lengths<br />

(4mm), fibre bridging started to emerge, which can be attributed to the CSM layer placed in the<br />

face/core interface during the manufacturing process <strong>of</strong> the MMB specimens. The fibre bridging<br />

enhances the fracture toughness by creating a large fracture process zone <strong>and</strong>, thus, the modemixity<br />

might lose its validity. Since the fracture experiments are focused on fracture initiation<br />

<strong>and</strong> not propagation, no analysis for fibre bridging is presented in this study.<br />

3.4 Panel Tests<br />

Figure 3.9: Crack path for an MMB specimen with H250 core.<br />

Figure 3.10 shows the test rig designed to introduce a uniform in-plane compressive load to the<br />

edges <strong>of</strong> either plane or singly curved s<strong>and</strong>wich panels. The test rig was inserted into a four-<br />

column Instron 8508 servo-hydraulic testing machine with a maximum capacity <strong>of</strong> 5 MN.<br />

However, a 1 kN Instron load cell was used for the tests to increase the accuracy <strong>of</strong> the load<br />

measurements. A 4 Mpix Digital Image Correlation (DIC) measurement system (ARAMIS 4M)<br />

49

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