This paper deals with the investigation of stress concentration in the glassfiber reinforced laminates with U type and V type notches. The materials tested in this study are three kinds of laminates constructed of plain fabrics cloth/chopped strand mat (Cloth-Mat FRP), plain fabrics cloth alone (Cloth FRP) and chopped strand mat alone (Mat FRP). The effect of the notch shape on the stress concentration factor is examined, where the notch flank angle is chosen at V type notch and the notch depth at U type notch. The stress concentration factors in the specimens subjected to tensile load are determined experimentally by using the photoelasticity method. The main results in this study are summarized as follows; 1) The values of the stress concentration factors for these laminates are lower than for the isotropic materials, and decrease according to the order of Cloth FRP, Cloth-Mat FRP and Mat FRP. 2) The stress concentration factors of the notched FRP laminates are calculated by modifying Heywood's experimental equation for isotropic material. The calculated results show a good agreement with the experimental data.
The shear moduli of the unidirectional graphite-epoxy composites and the matrix material “epoxy” under compressive load were measured by torsion test. The compressive failure tests of them were also carried out and the acoustic emission was measured. The shear modulus of epoxy did not decrease until a high compressive strain. Therefore the previous theories for the compressive strength which require the decrease of shear modulus of epoxy under the compressive stress should be denied. Young's modulus and the shear modulus of composites suddenly decreased at the load about 10% to 20% lower than the compressive failure load, and the numbers of events of acoustic emission rapidly increased. Photographs by the scanning electron-microscope have shown that the section of the failed fiber is skewed and stepwise, which is characteristics different from that of the tensile failure. The stresses caused by the difference between Poisson's ratio of the fiber and that of the matrix under a compressive load and the thermal residual stress produced in the process of curing have been analytically calculated on the assumption of the hexagonal array of fibers. The results have revealed that those two stresses cannot be the factors to determine the compressive strength of the composites. A formula to express the effect of compressive load on the torsional deformation has been obtained for the square section on the asssumption of no warping constraint.