Evaluation and Comparison of Fracture Toughness of Glass Fibre Reinforce Composites

Abstract

The study of the behaviour of a broken structure or component under service conditions is known as fracture mechanics. Impurities, uneven curing, holes and notches are all sources of fractures. Cracks are common local discontinuities in materials caused by a variety of factors. Such discontinuities cause the structure's rigidity and consequently load bearing capability to deteriorate. It is known that for the crack to propagate, the stress in the locale of the crack tip should reach the critical value. Once stress level is critical, the crack propagates and leads to failure of the structure. A segment of the crack is divided into three modes namely Mode I (Opening mode), Mode II (sliding mode), Mode III (tearing mode). The current study presents a computational and experimental study on fractography and notch sensitivity evaluation in glass-fiber-reinforced-laminate under quasi-static load.  For both numerical and experimental damage assessments, three volume fractions of glass and resin plies (50/50, 60/40, and 70/30) have been used. The fracture toughness investigation was carried out in accordance with ASTM standards, utilising a universal testing equipment. The numerical study is conducted out using the J-integral approach.  The fracture toughness increases with resin content and is determined by the ductility of the plastic zone surrounding the crack tip. Within an acceptable range, the numerical findings are equivalent to the experimental values. When compared to the other modes, Mode 1 is the fatal. The mode I fracture toughness of several materials is evaluated experimentally and compared in this study.