Experimental and Numerical Study of the Effect of the Presence of a Geometric Discontinuity of Variable Shape on the Tensile Strength of an Epoxy Polymer

Abstract The presence of geometric discontinuity in a material reduces considerably its resistance to mechanical stresses, therefore reducing the service life of materials. The analysis of structural behaviour in the presence of geometric discontinuities is important to ensure the proper use, especially if it is regarding a material of weak mechanical properties such as a polymer. The objective of the present work is to analyse the effect of the notch presence of variable geometric shapes on the tensile strength of epoxy-type polymer specimens. A series of tensile tests were carried out on standardised specimens, taking into account the presence or absence of a notch. Each series of tests contains five specimens. Two notch shapes were considered: circular (hole) and elliptical. The experimental results in terms of stress–strain clearly show that the presence of notches reduces considerably the resistance of the material, where the maximum stress for the undamaged specimen was 41.22 MPa and the lowest stress for the elliptical-notched specimen was 11.21 MPa. A numerical analysis by the extended finite element method (XFEM) was undertaken on the same geometric models; in addition, the results in stress–strain form were validated with the experimental results. A remarkable improvement was obtained (generally an error within 0.06%) for strain, maximum stress, Young’s modulus and elongation values. An exponential decrease was noted in the stress, strain, and Young’s modulus in the presence of a notch in the material.