One specimen mode I delamination test for composite materials

A new test specimen for measuring G_lc of the delamination of composite materials has been developed and tested. The advantages of the new test specimen are that a single specimen is sufficient to obtain an accurate compliance calibration and that it eliminates the need of continuous viewing of the crack-tip propagation, required for the measurement of the crack lengths. Another utilization of the proposed test specimen is working with materials with low modulus of elasticity, where the effective notch length under loading is different than the measured length.