The fracture toughness of a glass chopped-strand-mat/polyester-resin laminate

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Abstract
Measurements of the critical strain energy release rate Gc and the critical crack tip stress intensity factor Kc have been made on chopped-strand-mat/polyester-resin laminates using centre-notched specimens of constant width and varying initial crack length. In the determination of Gc allowance was made for irrecoverable energy due to progressive damage. The Gc values were converted to Kc values using the relationship Kc2=EGc, where E is the initial modulus of the material. The direct determination of Kc gave lower values. However, when Irwin's plastic-zone correction factor for metals was applied, using the resin cracking stress as an equivalent yield stress, the corrected values compared well with those obtained from the Gc values. All the results showed a variation of Kc with initial crack length.

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