Failure mechanisms in three and four point short beam bending tests of unidirectional glass/epoxy

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Abstract
Three and four point bending tests are compared both analytically and experimentally. In all the three point bending tests, damage was observed under the loading roller in addition to the interlaminar shear failure, while in the four point bending tests, only interlaminar shear failure was observed. Therefore, this four point bending test is valid for measuring the interlaminar shear strength. From the finite element analysis, it is found that the roller diameter is a critical parameter in determining the stress concentrations in short beam tests. In order to avoid damage under the roller and thus to make the short beam test a valid means for measuring the interlaminar shear strength, the appropriate roller diameters should be chosen. The damage under the loading roller in the three point bending test basically reduces the effective specimen thickness and thus this test underestimates the interlaminar shear strength. The interlaminar shear cracks in the short beam tests were found to be randomly distributed in a region between 30 percent and 70 percent through the thickness from the top surface. This is due to the non-linear shear response which means that the shear stress distribution is more uniform near the middle of the section. Also the maximum value of the shear stress is lower than the maximum value given by beam theory. A non-linear shear correction factor is suggested to account for this effect and for the glass/epoxy composite tested here, the actual interlaminar shear strength is only about 83 percent of the apparent value from classical beam theory. The interlaminar shear crack does not occur at the location of maximum shear stress. This may be because there is insufficient energy to propagate a crack at this location.