Crack kinking in sandwich structures under three-point bending

Sandwich beams under three-point bending containing cracks in the core material very close to the upper skin interface are investigated. The cracks considered parallel or with an imperceptible inclination to the longitudinal beam axis and at different distances from the upper skin interface, are analyzed with static non-linear elastic two and three dimensional finite element analyses. From the proposed analyses stress intensity factors are calculated using linear elastic fracture mechanics. It is demonstrated that the crack propagation on the compression side of the core is mainly subjected in shear. The strain energy density criterion is used in order to determine the angle of kinking of the crack into the core.