Paper number 688

INTERFACIAL DESIGN FOR DAMAGE TOLERANT FIBER COMPOSITES

V. Damljanovic and N. R. Sottos

Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 104 South Wright Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA

Summary The study of the interfacial failure during single fiber push-out tests, performed on model polymer composites, reveals the influence of interfacial roughness and adhesion on damage evolution. The experiments showed increasing crack propagation stability, interfacial toughness and frictional stress with increasing roughness. The samples with stronger interfacial adhesion had higher maximum load and interfacial fracture toughness. The occurrence of matrix cracks along the interface was more frequent for rougher fibers as well as for samples with enhanced interfacial adhesion. The push-out force during frictional sliding increased due to various wear mechanisms, whose effects are significant in the case of brittle materials with low surface hardness. These results indicate that the interfacial properties of the model composites can be systematically altered to create a range of damage modes.
Keywords fiber/matrix interface, push-out, frictional stress, fracture toughness, surface roughness, wear, adhesion.

Theme : Interface and Interphase

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