Similitude of Failure and Size Effect in Fiber Composites

Abstract

The present brief paper reviews recent test resuts at Northwestern University and to briefly outlines some new theoretical, experimentally yet unconfirmed, deductions for the law governing the size effect in failures with an asymptotic residual stress in the crack, which may be either tensile, due to unbroken crack-bridging fibers, or compressive, due to buckling of fibers in a kink band treated apporoximately as a compression crack. This law is of approximate nature and ensues as a simple asymptotic matching of the size effects for small and large structural sizes.