FIBER FRACTURE IN UNIDIRECTIONAL COMPOSITES

In this paper, an analysis is developed to predict the stress redistri bution in the presence of single and multiple fractured fibers in a un idirectional composite material. This analysis includes the effects of constituent properties, fiber volume fraction, and crack size on the strain concentrations experienced by the adjacent fibers. These effect s are not included in other predictions such as shear lag or those of Hedgepeth and Van Dyke. In addition, the predictions are compared with direct experimental measurements obtained from model composite tests.