THE INFLUENCE OF FIBER IRREGULARITY ON THE TENSILE PROPERTIES OF CARBON AND GLASS-FIBERS

An analysis is presented of the influence of fibre irregularity on the tensile properties of carbon and glass fibres. initially the intrisic tensile properties of an elementary length of fibre subjected to unif orm stress distribution Mere evaluated by using results of the fibre b ending test and a Weibull analysis. subsequently the influence of cros s-section area irregularity on the tensile properties of the fibres wa s addressed by the introduction of a parameter X into the equation def ining the breaking strain of a sample of given length. Parameter X was characterized by a ratio of the maximum to the minimum value of fibre cross-section area. The results of Student t tests indicate that ther e is no significant difference between the empirical and theoretical v alues of breaking strain for the samples of fibres investigated.