TENSILE FRACTURE-BEHAVIOR OF FIBER-REINFORCED CERAMIC-MATRIX COMPOSITE WITH HOLE

The fracture behaviour of silicon carbide fibre-reinforced aluminosili cate glass-ceramic composite, SiC/1723, with a circular hole was studi ed. Two lay-ups were examined: unidirectional, [O](8), and cross-ply, [0/90](2s). Different hole diameter (D) to specimen width (W) ratios r anging from 0.1 to 0.4 were investigated. The notched strength for bot h lay-ups and different D/W ratios was found to be almost equal to the net section strength, showing that the tested ceramic-matrix composit e was basically notch insensitive. A systematic investigation of damag e initiation and progression was undertaken to explain this finding.