Mode I delamination onset in carbon fibre reinforced SiC: Double cantilever beam testing and cohesive zone modelling

Double cantilever beam testing and a number of data reduction methods are applied on the fabric-reinforced C/C-SiC material. The resulting critical energy release rates are compared. The validation of the experimental energy release rate is done by cohesive zone modelling, using an average critical energy release rate in combination with a maximum stress criterion and a linear softening rule. A good agreement of numerical and experimental crack onset loads was obtained for varying initial crack lengths.