Fibre break failure processes in unidirectional composites: evaluation of critical damage states

Alain Thionnet (1, 2) , Anthony R. Bunsell (1)

1 MAT - Centre des Matériaux
2 UB - Université de Bourgogne

Earlier work which successfully modelled the kinetics of fibre breakage in unidirectional composites under monotonic tensile loading has been extended to quantify the kinetics of fibre failure during both monotonic and sustained tensile loading. In both cases, failure was seen to occur when a critical density of large clusters (more than 16 fibres are broken within the representative volume element) of fibre breaks developed. However, in monotonic loading failure occurred very quickly after the first development of these large clusters, whereas under sustained loading the composite could accommodate greater levels of large clusters because of the lower applied load.

Mots clés: fibre breaks; critical damage; clusters of breaks; effects of monotonic and sustained tensile loading

Domaines: Physique [physics]; Matière Condensée [cond-mat]; Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Alain Thionnet, Anthony R. Bunsell. Fibre break failure processes in unidirectional composites: evaluation of critical damage states. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 2016, 374, 20150270, 14 p. ⟨10.1098/rsta.2015.0270⟩. ⟨hal-01338536⟩