Fracture of FRP plates containing blunt and shallow notches under static loads

摘要

The fracture criterion of notched FRP plates based on the concept of stress concentration and the similarity of stress distribution near the notch root is investigated experimentally. An experimental method is presented for examining the fracturestrength of notched FRP plates under static loads. The investigation is accomplished by obtaining experimental data on the tension and bending tests of a glass fiber-reinforced polycarbonate plates containing blunt and shallow notches. For sharp-notchedspecimens, the stress distributions near the notch root are the same in all specimens, for which both the maximum elastic stress and notch-root radius are equal to each other. Therefore, the maximum elastic stress at fracture is determined by thenotch-root radius only. On the other hand, for blunt-notched specimens the situation is much more complex. The experimental results were discussed in terms of a combination of the maximum elastic stress, notch-root radius and the width of notch section.Applying the fracture criterion derived here, the experimental results for blunt-notched specimens can be clearly explained.