Engineering fracture mechanics analysis of paper materials

The aim of the present work was to develop an analytic fracture mechanics procedure that enables accurate predictions of failure of paper materials. Analytic expressions for prediction of the critical force and critical elongation of edge-notched paper webs were developed based on isotropic deformation theory of plasticity and J-integral theory. The analytic expressions were applied to predict the critical force and elongation of paper webs with different edge-notch sizes for six different paper materials. The accuracy of the analytic failure predictions was verified by numerical predictions and experiments on edge-notched paper webs, showing that the developed engineering fracture mechanics analysis procedure predicted failure accurately.