TITLE:
Fracture Toughness of Glass-Carbon (0/90)s Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite – An Experimental and Numerical Study
AUTHORS:
P.S. Shivakumar Gouda, S.K. Kudari, S. Prabhuswamy, Dayananda Jawali
KEYWORDS:
Hybrid polymer composite, Mode -I fracture toughness, Stress intensity factor, Finite element analysis.
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering,
Vol.10 No.8,
June
27,
2011
ABSTRACT: Mode-I fracture behavior of glass-carbon fiber reinforced hybrid polymer composite was
investigated based on experimental and finite element analysis. The compact tension (CT)
specimen was employed to conduct mode-I fracture test using special loading fixtures as per
ASTM standards. Fracture toughness was determined experimentally for along and across
the fiber orientation of the specimen. Results indicated that the cracked specimens are
tougher along the fiber orientations as compared with across the fiber orientations. A similar
fracture test was simulated using finite element analysis software ANSYS. Critical stress
intensity factor (K) was calculated at fracture/failure using displacement extrapolation
method, for both along and across the fiber orientations. The fractured surfaces of the glasscarbon
epoxy composite under mode-I loading condition was examined by electron
microscope.