On mixed-mode I/II crack growth in dental resin materials

Dental restorative materials experience different combinations of tensile and shear loads. In this paper, the fracture initiation is studied under mixed-mode loading for two types of dental resins. A significant discrepancy is shown to exist between the test data reported for these materials and the theoretical results. A generalized maximum tangential stress criterion is then used for fracture analysis of the tested dental resins. The generalized criterion provides considerably improved estimates for fracture resistance of the tested materials. (c) 2008 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.