TY - JOUR T1 - Interlaminar fracture studies in Portugal: past, present and future A1 - de Morais,Alfredo A1 - Rebelo,Carlos A1 - de Castro,Paulo A1 - Marques,Antonio A1 - Davies,Peter AD - Univ Aveiro, Dept Mech Engn, P-3810193 Aveiro, Portugal. AD - Politechn Inst Coimbra, Dept Mech Engn, Inst Engn, P-3030199 Coimbra, Portugal. AD - Univ Porto, Fac Engn, Dept Mech Engn & Ind Management, P-4200465 Oporto, Portugal. AD - IFREMER, Ctr Brest, Mat & Struct Grp, F-29280 Plouzane, France. UR - https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/789/ KW - Unidirectional laminates KW - Multidirectional laminates KW - Interlaminar fracture KW - End notched flexure ENF KW - Double cantilever beam DCB N2 - This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in interlaminar fracture testing of composite materials, with particular emphasis on the work performed in Portugal over the last 15 years. Early work, carried out within the ESIS Polymer and Composite Technical Committee, was concerned with improving test methods on unidirectional [0degrees](n) specimens. The focus was on the mode I double cantilever beam (DCB) test and on mode II end-notched flexure (ENE) and end loaded split (ELS) tests. In spite of some remaining controversy on mode II testing, the main issue nowadays is fracture toughness measurement on multidirectional specimens. Remaining difficulties are discussed in the light of the most recent work. Guidelines for ongoing and future research are also presented. Y1 - 2004/09 PB - Blackwell science JF - Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures SN - 8756-758X VL - 27 IS - 9 SP - 767 EP - 773 ID - 789 ER -