Fracture toughness characterisation of a glass fibre-reinforced plastic composite

By examining the state of the art, it can be realised that few research works have been done on the fracture behaviour of plastic composites reinforced with continuous glass fibres. Therefore, the present paper deals with the fracture toughness of a unidirectional glass fibre-reinforced plastic (GFRP), such a parameter being analytically determined by means of the modified two-parameter model (MTPM). The input data of the MTPM are obtained from an experimental campaign related to three-point bending tests on single edge-notched specimens characterised by different sizes. The novelty of this research work is that the MTPM, originally proposed for isotropic materials, is here employed to estimate the fracture toughness of GFRPs characterised by orthotropic mechanical properties