Shrinkage stresses near a discontinuity in a fibre composite material

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Abstract
The technique of photothermoelasticity has been used to analyse the shrinkage stresses near to a discontinuity in a model of a fibre composite material. The axial-shrinkage stresses away from the discontinuity are tensile in the matrix and compressive in the fibre, while, between the ends of the discontinuous fibre they are wholly compressive. Under an applied axial tensile stress the presence of shrinkage stresses would therefore tend to reduce the tendency for matrix cracking to occur in the gap between the fibre ends where the tensile-stress concentration is high. However, if the fibres are close together the shrinkage stresses can themselves cause matrix cracking. These observations are reinforced by the results of other work on the strength of single- and multiple-fibre composites.

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