Delayed fracture of damaged zone in fibrous composite

✍ Scribed by Rafael Salganik; Victor Gotlib; Lev Rapoport

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 456 KB
• Volume: 81
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1573-2673
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00039578

✦ Synopsis

In fibrous composites with unidirectional alignment of long and sufficiently strong fibers, it is observed that under tensile loading parallel to fibers, the matrix is ruptured in thin, damaged zones oriented perpendicularly to the fibers. Such a zone is bridged only by fibers taking all the composite load [1,2] (Fig. 1). If the load increase is considerably slowed down or ceases, fibers in the damaged zone can experience delayed fracture. This is particularly important in the presence of hostile species in the environment capable of drastically enhancing delayed fracture of fibers. Broken matrix in a damaged zone ensures an easy access of hostile environment to those parts of the bridging glass fibers which are within this zone and therefore are most vulnerable to the environmental attack.