Materials and Design 31 (2010) 4461–4469

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General mixed mode I/II fracture criterion for wood considering T-stress effects
A.R. Gowhari Anaraki, M. Fakoor *
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Narmak, Tehran 1684613114, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A general mixed mode I/II fracture criterion applicable to orthotropic materials with arbitrary oriented
Received 22 December 2009 cracks with respect to the orthotropy axes is presented. Wasted energy in fracture process zone is con-
Accepted 28 April 2010 sidered based on the calculated damage properties for an elastic solid containing random distributed
Available online 5 May 2010
micro-cracks. This new criterion includes the effects of T-stress as a significant term in fracture of some
specimens. The correctness and applicability of this criterion has been investigated for some wood spec-
imens. Very good agreement is obtained from verification of results with experimental data.
Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Due to complicacies in wood fracture phenomenon, most re-

Wood is a natural orthotropic material which is preferred for a
multitude of uses. The inherent factors that keep wood in the fore-
front of raw materials are many and varied, but a chief attribute is
its availability in many species, sizes and shapes. Wood has a high
ratio of strength to weight and a remarkable record for durability
and performance as a structural material. It can be produced from
natural renewable sources without any complicated manufactur-
ing process. Dry wood has good insulating properties against heat,
sound, and electricity. It tends to absorb and dissipate vibrations
under some conditions of use [1].
Wood components are very unlikely to be undamaged when
they are used in service. Inherent damages in wood are usually
accompanied with cracks of various sizes [2]. These cracks or any
geometric discontinuities (like notches) are often subjected to
mixed mode I and II loading in service (i.e. to a combination of
opening and shear loading conditions).
It is a well-known fact that wood has a damage zone around the
crack tip and fracture of wood specimens is associated with devel-
opment of micro-cracks in the crack tip vicinity [3]. Fracture of
wooden structures is not a sudden and catastrophic phenomenon
due to consumption of energy in created process zone. This can
be accounted as one of another advantage of increasing use of
wood. This process area causes a complicated nonlinear behavior
in crack tip vicinity and complicacies in the analysis of fracture
phenomenon.
Various criteria are proposed for fracture investigation of wood
specimens under mixed mode I/II loading. Nearly all proposed cri-
teria are related to specimens with initial notches along the wood
fibers and T-stress effect has been neglected in all published
studies.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 091 73912953; fax: +98 021 77240488.
E-mail address: mfakoor@iust.ac.ir (M. Fakoor).
searches and studies in this field are based on curve fitting on
experimental data. Among the first proposed suggestions for inves-
tigation of mixed mode fracture behavior of wood for cracks along
the wood fibers, we can address to Mall model that examined
mixed mode fracture of eastern Red spruce [4]. Also, Wu studied
Balsa wood under mixed mode condition using center notched
plates with notches cut parallel to grain axis. He proposed an inter-
active equation as a criterion for mixed mode crack growth based
on curve fitting on experimental data [5].
Another approach has been recently taken by some researchers
to extract a suitable criterion for analysis of wood structures under
mixed mode I/II loading by expansion of well-known isotropic
fracture criteria. As an example, maximum strain energy release
rate [6] and minimum strain energy density criteria [7], which
are applicable for mixed mode fracture analysis of isotropic mate-
rials, are expanded to wooden structures by Jernkvist [8]. However
the related results are too conservative and are not fitted to exper-
imental data [9]. Linear assumptions for fracture analysis of wood
and neglecting the wasted energy by microcrack formation and
growth in fracture process zone are the main reasons of this defi-
ciency. He also expanded maximum principal stress criterion to
wood in frame work of linear elastic fracture mechanics. The agree-
ment of this criterion with experimental data was poor for speci-
mens tested under large mode mixity. For example, in pure
mode II for Norway spruce wood, the discrepancy was found to
be more than 30%. It was emphasized that the maximum principal
stress criterion is in fair agreement with experimental data, for KII/
KI < 3 [9]. T-stress effects have been neglected in all above pro-
posed criteria.
Recently, a new mixed mode fracture condition based on non-
local stress fracture criterion is presented for wooden specimens
including arbitrarily oriented cracks with respect to the orthotropy
axes [10]. Based on author’s inquiry, this criterion includes princi-
pal objections that will be explained in Appendix B.

0261-3069/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2010.04.055
4462 A.R. Gowhari Anaraki, M. Fakoor / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 4461–4469

From the above review, it can be concluded that there is not any
general and robust criterion for investigation of mixed mode frac-
ture of wooden bodies containing:

(1) The effects of wasted energy in fracture process zone.

(2) Applicable to arbitrary orientated cracks with respect to
wood fibers, and also
(3) Effect of T-stress.

In this article a general criterion is extracted by modification of

maximum strain energy release rate approach such that; includes
the effects of energy wasted in fracture process zone due to micro-
crack formation, and also the fact that cracks in wood generally
propagate along wood fibers, irrespective of the original crack ori-
entation and degree of mode mixity. This new criterion is capable
to analyze T-stress effects on mixed mode I/II fracture of wood
specimens with arbitrary oriented cracks.
T-stress is expected to have maximum effects on cross-fiber
cracks, since the tensile strength perpendicular to the wood fibers
Fig. 1. Single edge notch tensile specimen.
is low. T-stress term can be positive or negative, depending on the
geometry and loading conditions of cracked body.
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
For extraction of this general criterion we will take a progres- qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi qffiffiffiffiffi
Pa 1
sive approach containing three steps, at first a criterion for cracks K II ¼ E0II GII ¼ E0II Y
3 II
ð2Þ
b E1 h
along the wood fibers is presented and in the next step this crite-
rion will be extended to arbitrary crack orientation and in the last where E0I and E0II are the generalized elastic moduli and E1 is the
step by some modification our general criterion with the capability Young modulus in fiber direction. GI and GII are strain energy release
of T-stress modeling will be proposed. rates in mode I and II respectively and YI, YII are dimensionless func-
tions, which depend on the material property and specimen geom-
etry and define in [9] as:
2. Geometry and material conditions !
pffiffiffia  A hk1=4
The mechanical behavior of wood is strongly affected by com- YI ¼ 3 1 þ fI ðxÞ ð3Þ
a aþA
plex anatomy of the material. Wood may be described as a cylin-
drically orthotropic; that is, it has unique and independent   !
mechanical properties in the directions of three mutually perpen- 3 aþA hk1=4
Y II ¼ 1 þ fII ðxÞ ð4Þ
dicular axes: longitudinal ‘‘L”, radial ‘‘R”, and tangential ‘‘T” [1]. A 2 a aþA
crack may lie in one of these three planes and may propagate in
one of two directions in each plane. This gives rise to six crack In which [9]:
propagation systems, RL, TL, LR, TR, LT, and RT. C 011 2C 0 þ C 0
In the present study, Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) mixed mode k¼ ; x ¼ q12ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
66
ð5Þ
C 022 2 C 011 C 022
fracture experimental data related to Single Edge Notch Tensile
Specimen (SENT) will be used for verification of results in our arbi-
and [9]:
trary crack orientation criterion from [10]. Geometry and applied
loads of this specimen are shown in Fig. 1. Where, x is the crack fI ðxÞ ¼ 0:677 þ 0:1460ðx  1Þ  0:01780ðx  1Þ2
inclination with respect to longitudinal axis. In this specimen,
Mode mixity is controlled by variation of load components (Fx, Fy). þ 0:00242ðx  1Þ3 ð6Þ
It can be shown that T-stress effects are neglectable in this
specimen [9]. fII ðxÞ ¼ 0:206 þ 0:0761ðx  1Þ  0:00978ðx  1Þ2
Also, Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) experimental data [9] re- þ 0:00112ðx  1Þ3 ð7Þ
lated to Norway spruce (Picea abies) wood have been used for ver-
ification of T-stress effects in our criterion (Fig. 2). The stress Elastic properties of Scots pine and Norway spruce wood that
intensity factors of DCB specimen could be evaluated directly with- have been used in the following analysis are summarized in Table
out using of any complicated finite element analysis. All possible 1.
combinations of mode mixity from pure mode I to pure mode II
could be generated by variation of the ratio h/H and a/A [9]. Unlike 3. Energy based fracture criterion for cracks along the wood
SENT specimen, the effect of T-stress is very significant in DCB and fibers
neglecting the effect of T-stress in fracture criterion will lead to
incorrect estimation of fracture load. By use of a rescaling tech- Fracture criteria have been obtained if crack growth is assumed
nique for orthotropic materials [11], it is possible to find simple to be governed by the magnitude of near tip strain energy. Maxi-
relation for the mode I and II stress intensity factors in terms of mum strain energy release rate criterion is proposed by Griffith
the applied load, specimen geometry, and the material orthotropy. and Irwin for fracture investigation of isotropic materials under
The relations have the form [12,13]: mixed mode I/II loading. They made the assumption that fracture
takes place when the strain energy release rate during crack prop-
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi qffiffiffiffi agation reaches the energy rate needed to tear the material apart.
Pa 1
K I ¼ E0I GI ¼ E0I 3 I
Y ð1Þ This criterion has been extended for wooden parts in [8], assuming
b E1 h
self similar crack propagation and a simplifying assumption, in
 A.R. Gowhari Anaraki, M. Fakoor / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 4461–4469 4463

Fig. 2. DCB test specimens and load configuration.

Table 1
Elastic properties of Scots pine and Norway spruce wood applied in the analysis.
p p
Species ER (GPa) ET (GPa) EL (GPa) GRL (GPa) mLR mLT mTR K RL
Ic MPa m
K IIc RL MPa m

Norway spruce [9] 0.81 0.64 11.84 0.63 0.38 0.56 0.34 0.58 1.52
Scots pine [14] 1.10 0.57 16.3 1.74 0.47 0.45 0.31 0.49 1.32

which all energy dissipative mechanisms are neglected. The related
equation is simply extracted by substitution of stress filed in the
crack tip vicinity into maximum strain energy criterion as [8]:
K 2I þ a1 K 2II  K 2Ic ¼ 0
a1 is introduced in [8] as follow:
1
a1 ¼ ðC 011 =C 022 Þ2
In which C 0ij
coefficients are the components of compliance ma-
trix in the plane strain condition and have been introduced in
Appendix A. It worth noting that a1 coefficient in above equation
is only depending on the mechanical properties. Fracture limit
curve related to Eq. (8) is shown in Figs. 3 and 4 in comparison with
experimental data for Scots pine and Norway spruce in RL direc-
tion, respectively.
It can be found from Figs. 3 and 4 that extended maximum
strain energy release rate criterion is too conservative for both
wood species, especially when mode II loading is a dominant
mode. The authors have found that the main reason is due to
neglecting all dissipative energy mechanisms at the crack tip. This
energy is needed for FPZ formation in the crack tip vicinity. In other
words, linear approach in extraction of Eq. (8) implies that all ab-
sorbed energy by the specimen is consumed for crack growth.
Whereas the fact is that some absorbed energy is wasted due to
microcrack formation and growth in fracture process zone. Soften-
ing behavior in the vicinity of crack tip is occurred because of
microcrack formation (Fig. 5), and mechanical properties in FPZ
ð8Þ are degenerated considerably in comparison with virgin material
properties.
In this study a more reliable criterion will be proposed by con-
ð9Þ sidering of damage properties in fracture process zone. Using these
damage properties in extended maximum strain energy release
rate criterion, we can estimate the experimental fracture data with
higher accuracy.
3.1. Extracting of fracture process zone properties
In this section, mechanical properties of damage zone in the
crack tip vicinity will be considered based on wasted energy by mi-
cro-cracks. Therefore the crack propagation phenomenon in wood
specimens will be modeled in more detail, by applying these dam-
age properties in extended maximum strain energy release rate
criterion. For this purpose we will use analytical estimation of
the effective elastic properties of a body with random distribution
of micro-cracks, which is presented by Budiansky and O’Connel
[15]. In the case of long narrow elliptic cracks, this reference pro-

Fig. 3. Fracture limit curve of maximum strain energy release rate criterion in Fig. 4. Fracture limit curve of maximum strain energy release rate criterion in
comparison with experimental data [14] for Scots pine wood in RL direction. comparison with experimental data [9] for Norway spruce wood in RL direction.
4464 A.R. Gowhari Anaraki, M. Fakoor / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 4461–4469

Fig. 5. Fracture process zone in the crack tip vicinity of a wooden part.

posed a new formulation for estimating the effective elastic prop-

erties of the damaged material as follows [15]:
 
j 2
16 1  m
¼1 e ð10Þ
j 9 1  2m


Fig. 6. Effective shear modulus in damage zone in the vicinity of crack tip.
E 16
¼1 ð1 þ m
Þð5  4m
 Þe ð11Þ
E 45

G 8
¼1 ð10  7m
 Þe ð12Þ
G 45
where j, E and G are bulk modulus, modulus of elasticity and shear
modulus respectively. e is defined as the crack-density parameter
and for long elliptic cracks, it can be expressed as a function of Pois-
son’s ratio as below [15]:
45 m  m
e¼ ð13Þ
8 ð1 þ mÞ½10m  m
 ð1 þ 8mÞ

E; j
 ; G and m
 represent the effective elastic properties of the cracked
body. Crack size and shape are assumed to be uncorrelated in this
analysis.

3.2. Modification of energy based criterion

The variations of mechanical properties of the fracture process

zone for different wood species investigated in this work are de-
picted in Figs. 6–9 versus crack-density parameter.
As illustrated in the figures, the effective elastic properties of
the cracked body i.e. m ; E; G and j
 , are all exhibit a decreasing Fig. 7. Effective elastic modulus in damage zone in the vicinity of crack tip.

behavior with respect to increasing of the crack-density parameter,

e and they also tend to zero when this parameter tends to the crit-
ical crack-density parameter in vicinity of e = 0.56 for all kinds of
wood species. Material degradation can be interpreted as a loss
of coherence in crack tip vicinity, which is produced by an inter-
secting crack network at the critical value 0.56 of the crack-density
parameter. It can be shown that the unstable crack growth starts at
e = 0.4 and at e = 0.56 the fracture process zone will become a por-
tion of the main crack, in other words the specimen in damage
zone will completely tear apart and the load capacity in this region
is vanished.
Now we can use maximum strain energy release rate criterion
with effective material properties in fracture process zone. As ex-
plained earlier in detail, this procedure will help us to simulate
the crack propagation process in wood damaged matrix accurately.
Therefore the required energy for formation and growth of micro-
cracks is considered in our calculations. So the maximum strain en-
ergy release rate criterion is modified as follows:

K 2I þ qc K 2II  K Ic ¼ 0 ð14Þ
The authors introduce qc as a ‘‘compliance damage factor”. This
softening factor can be extracted by substitution of damage prop-
erties in Eq. (9) as follows: Fig. 8. Effective bulk modulus in damage zone in the vicinity of crack tip.
 A.R. Gowhari Anaraki, M. Fakoor / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 4461–4469
Fig. 9. Effective Poisson’s ratio in damage zone in the vicinity of crack tip.
Fig. 10. Fracture limit curves for strain energy release rate (SER) criterion
considering linear and nonlinear behavior of material in FPZ, in comparison with
experimental data for Scots pine wood [14].
1=2
qc ¼ ðC 011 =C 022 Þdamaged
Fracture limit curves using compliance softening factor qc is
plotted in Figs. 10 and 11 for Scots pine and Norway spruce wood,
respectively. This factor Increases the compliance of representative
volume element in the damage zone and therefore the area under
fracture limit curve in KI  KII coordinate. It can be found from
Figs. 10 and 11 that considering the portion of energy that causing
micro-crack formation and growth in fracture process zone, justi-
fies the difference between the linear fracture approximation and
experimental data. The discrepancy between modified criterion
and experimental data for Scots pine wood is too small and for
Norway spruce is less than 10%, which is in a very good agreement.
4. Fracture criterion for arbitrary crack orientation
As mentioned earlier, crack growth at an arbitrary notch angle
with respect to wood fibers as shown in Fig. 12 is known to take
place along a particular physical plane with the highest risk of
4465
Fig. 11. Fracture limit curves for modified strain energy release rate (modified SER)
criterion considering linear and nonlinear behavior of material in FPZ, in compar-
ison with experimental data for Norway spruce wood [9].
Fig. 12. Wood specimen with arbitrary orientation initial notch.
ð15Þ
the fracture, i.e. along the wood fibers, and therefore the crack
deviates by angle x from the original notch orientation. Based on
this phenomenon, we have made the assumption that, after in-
plane loading, the oblique cracks show a tendency to deviate from
the original direction via a sharp kink occurred at the crack tip and
propagate along the wood fibers when the fracture toughness at
the tip of the kink is exceeded, (Fig. 13). Assuming that the kink
direction will be aligned along the wood fiber direction, lead us
to use the fracture criterion derived in the previous section for a di-
rect crack (i.e. Eq. (14)) to determine the onset of the fracture for
this arbitrary oriented crack position. This approach is indeed a
modification to the formulation derived for a direct crack in the
previous section, provided that the local stress intensities at the
crack tip of the kink (i.e. K kink ; K kink ) are substituted to Eq. (14), as
I II
follows:
 2  2
K kink þ qc K kink  K Ic ¼ 0 ð16Þ
I II
4466 A.R. Gowhari Anaraki, M. Fakoor / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 4461–4469
Fig. 13. Kinking in an arbitrary crack orientation.
Since the wood specimen is assumed to be linearly elastic, the
stress intensity factors at the tip of the kink, K kink
I and K kink
II , may
therefore be expressed as a linear combinations of the stress inten-
sity factors for the main cross-fiber cracks, as follows [16]:
K kink
I ¼ a11 K I þ a12 K II
ð17Þ
K kink ¼ a21 K I þ a22 K II
II
where aij coefficients with necessary subscripts represent functions
of kink angle x, and material compliance properties, Cij (Appendix
A). The values of aij can be calculated using an integral equation
method, that will be explained in the following section.
Fracture limit curves have been shown in Fig. 14 in comparison
with Norway spruce experimental data [9] for verification of
results. Initial notches are along (RL, x = 0) and across (LR,
x = 90) the wood fibers.
Fracture limit curves in comparison with Scots pine available
experimental data [10] have been plotted in Fig. 15. Initial notches
are made angles x = 0, 45, 67.5 and 90 with respect to wood fibers.
It can be found from Figs. 14 and 15 that, the presented method has
a very good agreement with experimental data. Nevertheless to
Fig. 14. Modified strain energy criterion for different crack orientation in compar-
ison with experimental data for Norway spruce wood [9].
Fig. 15. Modified strain energy criterion for different crack orientation in compar-
ison with experimental data for Scots pine wood [10].
this good agreement, the applicability of the derived fracture crite-
rion for cracks with arbitrary direction with respect to wood fibers
(i.e. Eq. (16)) is thus confined to geometric configurations where
the T-stress, i.e. the non-singular stress parallel with the crack
plane, is close to zero.
5. General fracture criterion for an arbitrary crack orientation
Including T-stress effects
In this section the proposed criterion is extended such that
include the effects of T-stress and therefore a general criterion
will be proposed for mixed mode fracture analysis of wood
components.
T-stress is strongly affected by the geometry of the cracked
body, the orthotropic properties of the material, and the conditions
of loading. Just as the stress intensity factors, T-stress must there-
fore be calculated for a specific combination of geometry and
orthotropic material property. For example, in Ref. [9] the corre-
sponding value is 14 MPa in the DCB specimen that is very larger
than T-stress in SENT specimen (2 MPa) and the fracture behavior
is influenced by the T-stress. So, for fracture prediction of speci-
mens like DCB with significant non-singular stress term, a more
advanced criterion is needed, in which the T-stress must be used
in addition to the stress intensity factors to fully characterize the
crack tip stress state.
T-stress produces a compression or tension stress field parallel
to crack plane in the vicinity of crack tip. So if the initial crack is
located along the wood fibers, the T-stress effects on the onset
and propagation of crack can be neglected. Fig. 16 shows the stress
state in the vicinity of a crack along the fibers of an orthotropic
body. It can be found from this figure that T-stress is parallel to
crack plane and has not a component to tear the material apart.
This fact is also confirmed in isotropic materials, i.e. as shown in
Fig. 17, T-stress has not any effects on the fracture of specimen
when its direction is parallel to crack plane (on pure mode I load-
ing). As soon as the isotropic body is subjected to mixed mode
loading, as shown in Fig. 18, the initial crack will deviate and leave
the original plane and the T-stress will find a component on kinked
crack plane which is able to help tear the material apart. Therefore
we can conclude that the effect of T-stress in cracked bodies is sig-
nificant only when the initial crack leaves its original plane. In
other words, the direction of crack plane must not be parallel with
T-stress field. Considering highly orthotropic properties of wood,
 A.R. Gowhari Anaraki, M. Fakoor / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 4461–4469
Fig. 16. Stress state in the vicinity of a crack along the fibers of an orthotropic body.
Fig. 17. T-stress has no effect on the fracture of isotropic specimen in pure mode I
loading.
Fig. 18. T-stress effect on the fracture of isotropic specimen under mixed mode I/II
loading after deviation of initial crack from original plane.
cracks oriented along the wood fibers are known to propagate self-
similarly, i.e. in contrast with isotropic materials, they do not leave
their original plane, even though the mode II load component my
be significant. So we can conclude that the effects of T-stress on
the cracks oriented along the wood fibers, is not significant.
Therefore for investigation of T-stress effect on wooden speci-
mens, we must consider the cases in which the crack tends to kink
and leaves its original plane. As studied in detail in the previous
sections, kinking of a crack and leaving the original plane is take
4467
Fig. 19. The T-stress effect on the fracture of orthotropic body in mixed mode I/II
loading after deviation of initial crack from original plane.
place only when the direction of initial notch is not the same as
direction of wood fibers (Fig. 19). Therefore our general criterion
with capability of considering T-stress effect is presented based
on the following observations:
(1) The effect of T-stress in cracked body is significant only if the
main crack leaves its original plane.
(2) In highly orthotropic materials like wood, crack leaves its
original plane if the direction of initial crack not to be paral-
lel to wood fibers.
Considering the above concepts, the modified strain energy cri-
terion obtained in the previous section has the capability of mod-
eling of T-stress effect by some modifications. Since kinked crack is
affected by T-stress field of the main crack, general strain energy
criterion will propose as follows:
 2  2
K kink
I þ qc K kink
II  K Ic ¼ 0 ð18Þ
In which K kink
I and K kink
II are defined in [17] as follows:
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
K kink
I ¼ a11 K I þ a12 K II þ b1 T akink
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð19Þ
K kink
II ¼ a21 K I þ a22 K II þ b2 T akink
where coefficients aij and bi are functions of material compliance
properties Cij, and kink angle x, akink is the kink length. For in-plane
deformation in isotropic materials, the values of aij and bi can be cal-
culated using an integral equation method described by He and
Hutchinson [16]. For the isotropic case, aij and bi depend on x only,
the values of aij are given by Hayashi and Nemat-Nasser [17] and He
and Hutchinson [16], and bi values by He et al. [18]. For in-plane
deformation in anisotropic solids, Miller and Stock [19] and Obata
et al. [20] calculated aij .For orthotropic solids, aij(x = p/2, Cij)
are given by Suo et al. [21]. The Stroh formalism of anisotropic elas-
ticity combined with integral equation approach are used to deter-
mine the stress intensity factors for arbitrary kink angles including
the effects of T-stresses and higher order terms [22].
The effect of different values of T-stress is shown in Fig. 20. In
order to show T-stress effects on fracture limit curves, a parameter
is used that define as:
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
B¼ akink T ð20Þ
Fig. 20 shows that, fracture limit curves related to B < 0 are
moved up and those related to B > 0 are moved down with respect
to B = 0. This confirms the fact that negative values of T-stress pre-
vent the fracture and positive values of T-stress promote the frac-
ture of specimen.
4468 A.R. Gowhari Anaraki, M. Fakoor / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 4461–4469
Fig. 20. T-stress effects on fracture limit curves.
It can be found from Fig. 19 that the maximum effect of T-stress
is occurred when crack direction is perpendicular to wood fibers.
For verification of results this critical case will be considered and
available Norway spruce experimental fracture data related to
DCB specimen that includes significant T-stress value will be used.
The values of aij and bi were calculated by solving integral equa-
tions for this material. The relative values are summarized in Table
2.
As discussed in previous sections, the corresponding value for
T-stress is the significant value of 14 MPa for DCB specimen [9].
General strain energy fracture limit curve that include T-stress ef-
fects and experimental fracture test data related to DCB specimen
in LR direction [9] are shown in Fig. 21. It can be seen that safe area
under fracture limit curve is decreased due to tensile T-stress and
Table 2
Dimensionless coefficients in Equation 44 for Norway spruce.
a11 a12 a21 a22 b1
Spruce 0.1334 0.9692 0.2365 0.2395 1.7357
Fig. 21. Effect of T-stress on fracture curve of DCB specimen [9].
fracture limit curve predicts experimental data very well. Till now,
in our knowledge, there is not any criterion for prediction of these
fracture test data.
6. Conclusion
A general failure criterion for fracture investigation of wood
specimens including arbitrary crack orientation with respect to
wood fibers under mixed mode I/II loading is presented. This crite-
rion is based on maximum strain energy release rate and the fact
that crack growth at an arbitrary notch angle is known to take
place along the wood fibers, and the crack thus deviates from the
original notch orientation. Wasted energy due to microcrack for-
mation in crack tip vicinity is considered by extraction of damage
properties in fracture process zone. This criterion is simply able to
consider T-stress effects as an important factor in fracture of some
specimens too. Verification of results has been done for two well-
known wood species; very good agreement is obtained with exper-
imental data.
Appendix A. Stress field in the crack tip vicinity located in an
orthotropic material
Stress field in the crack tip of an orthotropic body is defined in
[23] as follows:
K f ðhÞ K g ðhÞ
II ij
rij ¼ pI ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ij
ffi þ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi þ Tði; j ¼ 1; 2Þ ðA-1Þ
2pr 2pr
where the angular functions fij and gij are introduced in [23]. In Eq.
(A-1), T-stress is a function of mode I stress intensity factor and de-
fine in [24] as:
T S ¼ iðg 21  Imðx1 þ x2 Þ þ g 22  Imðx1  x2 ÞÞ ðA-2Þ
In which g21 and g22 are unknown factors that are functions of
loading and geometry [25]. The general T-stress form for orthotro-
pic materials is:
KI  a 
T S ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffi f ðA-3Þ
pa w
b2 In which f(a/w) is a function of specimen dimension (w is width
0.1575 and a is initial crack length). x1 and x2 are the roots of the following
characteristic equation [23]:
C 11 x4  2C 16 x3 þ ð2C 12 þ C 66 Þx2  2C 26 x þ C 22 ¼ 0 ðA-4Þ
where Cij denote the elements of a compliance matrix of the mate-
rial in the x  y coordinate system which relate stress to strain
according to the generalized Hooke’s law.
ei ¼ C ij rj for i; j ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; 6 ðA-5Þ
Appendix B. A criticism on non-local fracture criterion
A criterion is recently presented for fracture investigation of
wooden structures under mixed mode I/II based on non-local
stress theory [10]. This criterion in the general form i.e. in the case
of the initial notch is not along the wood fibers is proposed in [10]
as follows:
k11 K 2I þ k12 K I K II þ k22 K 2II ¼ K Ic ðB-1Þ
In the above criterion, kij coefficients denote trigonometric func-
tions of the crack inclination angle and crack tip stresses [10].
Authors have found fundamental defects in this criterion;
therefore result verification by this method is not possible. The
authors of non-local stress criterion have introduced Eq. (B-1) as
 A.R. Gowhari Anaraki, M. Fakoor / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 4461–4469 4469

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