On crack extension in TSD specimen with foam core

The Titled Sandwich Debond (TSD) specimen has recently been introduced for characterization of debond fracture of sandwich structure. A precracked sandwich is attached to an incline, and debonding is achieved by loading the partially debonded top face until further crack propagation occurs. In this paper we present numerical finite element analysis of stress intensity factors for several configurations of the TSD specimen, viz. crack in a homogeneous specimen, crack located at the face/core interface, and crack located slightly below the face/core interface. The tendency for crack kinking is examined over a range of tilt angles. The stress intensity factors and mode mixty displayed very little dependency on the tilt angle, but the results were shown to depend on the exact crack configuration.