Abstract Various types of graphite have gained interest in many industrial applications due to their high strength and excellent heat tolerance. However, due to the brittle nature of this material, presence of stress concentrators such as notches and geometrical discontinuities considerably re-duces the overall loading bearing of the graphite components. Here we evaluate the applicability of the Cohesive Zone Model (CZM) for the assessment of the fracture strength of experimentally tested U-notched specimens subject to mode I loading. The fracture loads of U-notched components with different notch tip radii can be predicted with an average discrepancy of ±7%.