The use of interlaminar reinforcement units, containing an interlocked tab-and-slit geometry, is a new concept for improving interlaminar fracture toughness. It was recently shown that such reinforcement units are capable of substantially increasing mode I fracture toughness, but mode II fracture toughness was unaffected.

This paper presents an investigation into the effect of tab orientation on the toughening mechanisms, comparing the experimentally determined Mode I and II interlaminar fracture toughness for different tab orientations.

The results show that the previously reported lack of mode II toughness increase was due to an unsuitable tab orientation. With a better choice of tab orientation a mode II propagation toughness increase (of 23.5%) could be obtained, while simultaneously increasing the mode I propagation toughness further than previously reported (up to a 109% improvement).

Fractography was used to investigate the toughening mechanisms. It was found that the two main toughening mechanisms are crack bridging (in mode I) and deflection of the delamination path (in both mode I and II). The relationship between the tab orientation and the obtained increase of fracture toughness can be explained by the effect of tab orientation on these mechanisms.