Analysis of the single-fiber fragmentation test

An analysis of the single-fiber fragmentation test was investigated. An app roximate solution for the stress fields of a fiber embedded in a polymer ma trix of different elastic moduli was obtained by the Eshelby method. The fi ber was modeled as a prolate spheroid. The axial stress of the fiber increa ses with increasing aspect ratio and fiber-matrix shear modulus ratio and d ecreases with increasing matrix and fiber Poisson's ratios. Using this anal ysis, the fracture stress of a single-fiber fragmentation specimen was deri ved. The applied stress at fiber fracture decreases monotonically with incr easing aspect ratio of the fragmented fiber and increases with increasing f iber and matrix Poisson's ratios. This model is in qualitative agreement wi th published experimental data. (C) 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers.