CRACK PROPAGATION IN THE RUBBER SHEET WITH OBLIQUE EDGE CRACK UNDER UNIAXIAL TENSION

The fracture mechanics method is used to analyze crack propagation characteristic of rubber sheet with the oblique edge crack under uniaxial tension.With the application of ABAQUS software, we have founded element models of two-dimensional rubber sheet with oblique edge crack at different angles of 0°、15°、30°、45°and 60°；and calculated the J-integral in the different orientation for the different models under simple tension.The J-integral parameter has been used to analyze the crack propagation orientation. It is shown that the crack propagation orientation isn’t along with the initial orientation of crack but with a certain angle, and the angle is gradually decreasing with the initial angle of oblique crack increasing.