Under loads normal to the direction of the fibers, composites suffer failures that are known as matrix or interfiber failures, typically involving interface cracks between matrix and fibers, the coalescence of which originates macrocracks in the composite. The purpose of this paper is to develop a micromechanical model, using the boundary element method, to generate information aiming to explain and support the mechanism of appearance and propagation of the damage. To this end, a single fiber surrounded by the matrix and with a partial debonding is studied. It has been found that under uniaxial loading transversal to the fibers direction the most significant phenomena appear for semidebonding angles in the interval between 60deg and 70deg. After this interval the growth of the crack along the interface is stable (energy release rate (ERR) decreasing) in pure Mode II, whereas it is plausibly unstable in mixed mode (dominated by Mode I for semidebondings smaller than 30deg) until it reaches the interval. At this interval the direction of maximum circumferential stress at the neighborhood of the crack tip is approximately normal to the applied load. If a crack corresponding to a debonding in this interval leaves the interface and penetrates into the matrix then: (a) the growth through the matrix is unstable in pure Mode I; (b) the value of the ERR reaches a maximum (in comparison with other debonding angles); and (c) the ERR is greater than that released if the crack continued growing along the interface. All this suggests that it is in this interval of semidebondings (60-70deg) that conditions are most appropriate for an interface crack to kink. Experiments developed by the authors show an excellent agreement between the predictions generated in this paper and the evolution of the damage in an actual composite.

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