TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENCE OF CRITICAL FIBER LENGTH FOR GLASS FIBER-REINFORCED THERMOSETTING RESINS

In discontinuous fiber‐reinforced composites, the critical fiber length plays an essential role in determining the mechanical properties. A method was devised to accurately determine the critical fiber length and the temperature dependence of the critical fiber length was studied for glass fiberepoxy and glass fiber‐unsaturated polyester resin composites. If a continuous glass fiber is embedded in the matrix and the system is subjected to a tensile strain greater than the fiber ultimate tensile strain, the fiber breaks into many pieces. If the average length of these broken pieces (l̄) is measured, the critical fiber length (lc) is expressed as lc = 4/3l̄. The critical fiber length greatly increases with increasing temperature and the apparent shear strength at the interface, calculated from the critical fiber length, decreases linearly with increasing temperature. Copyright © 1978 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.