Abstract
The validity of a failure criterion based on the idea of severity near the notch root is investigated experimentally. An experimental method is presented which examines the effects of notch geometry and fiber length on the damage and strength for notched plates of short glass fiber reinforced polypropylene (GF/PP) subjected to static tension. We used the GF/PP plate contains 30% E-glass fiber by weight. The mean value of fiber length was 0.4 and 3.5 mm. A diameter of fiber is about 0.01 mm. To evaluate the damage, we measured the luminance distributions by means of the luminance-measuring system with a CCD camera. It seems that the effects of fiber length were remarkable in the growth process of the damage and fracture strength for GF/PP plate. On the basis of the idea of severity near the notch root mentioned above, the experimental results can be explained.
