An Experimental Study of the Effect of Prestressed Loose Carbon Strands on Composite Strength

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Abstract
The purpose of this work is to demonstrate experimentally the strength behavior of composites reinforced with prestressed fiber strands. In a preceding article, a theoretical analysis of the feasibility of strength enhancement by fiber prestressing has been demonstrated. In this paper, fiber prestressing is achieved by bending of the loose bundles and the weak points of the fibers are thus eliminated. The experimental results show that after prebending the fibers to an appropriate level the strength of composites can be enhanced. Although the increase in composite mean strength is small, the varia tion of composite strength is greatly reduced, and the strength at high survivability level is enhanced most significantly.