Font Size: 

Behaviour of the embedded elongated elliptic delamination was studied usingFEM. The magnitudes and distributions of GI, GII and GIII along a delamination front weredetermined with the help of the Modified Crack Closure Integral Method. The non-linearityresulting from both the large rotations of delaminated sub-laminate and contact betweendelamination separated layers were taken into account. The results showed that the contactconditions and location of the contact regions change significantly with loading. Suchchanges affect the magnitude, proportions and distribution of GI, GII and GIII along thedelamination front. Also, the results suggest that, perhaps, it could be possible to makerough estimation of the hazard level that an elliptic delamination produces by makingcalculations for a circular delamination of radius equal to the minor axis of the ellipse inquestion.