Abstract
This paper investigates the effect of the fiber discontinuity, caused by the prepreg cut in fabricating laminated structures, on the mechanical properties in CFRP laminates. The damage initiation and progress around the fiber discontinuity are also discussed. It has been found that stresses required to initiate debonding between the resin rich region and the fiber discontinuous plies, and interlaminar delamination between the continuous and discontinuous plies, decrease with the increase in thickness of the fiber discontinuous plies. Specimens type B, C and D contain 3, 5 and 7 discontinuous spots respectively and these spots form staggered geometries. Fracture stress varied with the different distribution of fiber discontinuity. If interval d is longer than 10mm in type B and type C, fracture stress did not change. Also, if interval d is longer than 20mm in type D, fracture stress did not change.
