Plane Strain Fracture Behaviour of Fabric Reinforced Hybrid Composites under varied Notch Configurations

K. Mohamed Kaleemulla, B. Siddeswarappa

Department of Industrial and Production Engineering,University B.D.T. College of Engineering, Davangere 577004, India.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University B.D.T. College of Engineering,Davangere 577004, India.

DOI: 10.4236/jmmce.2009.86043                

Abstract

Utilization of fabric reinforced hybrid polymer composites has increased tremendously in many engineering fields. The present investigation is an attempt on fabric-reinforced hybrid composite laminates with different volume fractions of the constituent materials; epoxy resin, plain-woven glass fabric, and textile satin fabric. Fracture toughness of a material has immense importance in the determination of the resistance of the material to crack propagation. Hence in this article, impact behaviour and fracture toughness of the laminates were investigated as per ASTM-D256 standards. Specimen configuration includes selection of different notch depths, fiber proportion and orientations. The fracture toughness has been found to increase continuously with increased volumes of glass fabric and significantly dependent on the notch size. Experimental results are validated using analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique, and found that percentage contribution of glass content is approximately 80%, while notch depth and orientation have contributed only 16%.

Keywords

Impact toughness, fracture toughness, glass fabric, textile satin fabric, ANOVA, Modeling.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Backman, M. and Goldsmith, W. (1978). Int. J. of Engineering Science., 16: 1-99.
[2]	Zukus (1982). Penetration and perforation of solids. Impact dynamics, ed.: Wiley, 155- 214
[3]	MIL-HDBK-17-1F (2002). Composite Materials Handbook: Volume 1. Polymer Matrix Composites Guidelines for Characterization of Structural Materials, Department of Defense Handbook., 1: Chapter 7.
[4]	Taniuchi, K.(1990). The experimental analysis of yield stress at bottom of notch roots, Applied Stress Analysis., 1: 234–242.
[5]	Whitney, J.M. and Nuismer, R.J. (1974). Stress fracture criteria for laminated composites containing stress concentration, Journal of Computational Mathematics., 8(3): 253
[6]	Hyakutake, H. and Hagio, T. (1990). The severity near the notch root of notched bars, Applied Stress Analysis., 1: 243–249.
[7]	Lyons, J. (2003). Temperature Effects on Fractural Toughness of Polymeric Composites, Pittsburg State University-Kansas Technology Center., 27.
[8]	Reifsnider, K.L., Liao, K., McCormic, M. and Tiwari, A. (1997). Fibre fracture in continuous fibre ceramic composites: concepts and observations, J. of Engineering for Gas Turbine and Power., 119(1): 205.
[9]	Starnes, J.H., Rhodes, M.D. and Williams, J.G. (1979). Nondestructive Evaluation and Flaw Criticality for Composite Materials, ASTM STP., 696: 145.
[10]	Starnes, J.H. and Williams, J.G. (1982). NASA Technical Memorandum 84552, Washington DC., 157.
[11]	Wang, A.S.D. (1984). Composite Technology., 6: 45.
[12]	Greszczuk , L.G. (1975). ASTM STP., 568: 14.
[13]	Whitehead, R.S. (1985). Proc. of the 7th Conf. on Fibrous Composites in Structural Design, AFWAL-TR., 85-3094: 331-352.
[14]	Chell, G.G. (1979). Developments in Fracture Mechanics–1, Applied Science Publication Ltd., London.
[15]	Broke, D. (1987). Elementary Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 4th ed., Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Netherlands.,
[16]	Hyakutake, H., Nisitani, H. and Hagio, T. (1989). Fracture criterion of notched plates of FRP, J. of Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers., 32(2): 300.
[17]	Konish, H.J. and Cruse, T.A. (1975). Determination of fracture strength in orthotropic graphite/epoxy laminates, Composite Reliability, ASTM STP., 580: 490.
[18]	McClintock, F.A. and Irwin, G.R. (1984). Plasticity Aspects of Fracture Mechanics in Fracture Toughness Testing and it’s Applications, ASTM STP., 381: 84.
[19]	O’Brien, T.K., Johnson, N.J., Morris, D.H. and Simonds, R.A. (1982). A simple test for the interlaminar fracture toughness of composites, SAMPE Journal., 18(4): 8–15.
[20]	Cantwell, W.J. and Morton, (1989). The influence of varying projectile mass on the impact response of CFRP, Composite Structures., 13: 101-114.
[21]	Awerbach, J. and Madhukar, M.S. (1985). Notched strength of composite laminates: predictions and experiments – a review, J. of Reinforced Plastics and Composites.,4: 105.
[22]	Pipes, R.B., Wetherhold, R.C. and Gillespie Jr., J.W. (1979). Notched strength of composite materials, J. of Composite Materials., 12: 148.
[23]	Weixing, Y. 1992). On the notched strength of composite laminates, J. of Composite Science and Technology., 45: 105.
[24]	Rittel, D., Pineau, A., Clisson, J. and Rota, L. (2002). On Testing of Charpy Specimens Using the One-point Bend Impact Technique, Experimental Mechanics., 42: 1-6.