Stress Transfer into a Fragmented, Anisotropic Fiber through an Imperfect Interface

A new analysis for stress transfer from the matrix to a fragmented fiber through an imperfect interface was derived using a Bessel-Fourier series stress function with some important additional polynomial terms. The solution satisfies equilibrium and compatibility every place and satisfies most boundary conditions exactly. The only approximation is that the axial stress in the fiber at a fiber break is equal to zero in an averaged sense instead of exactly. Two important advantages of the analysis are that it can handle anisotropic fibers and it can include imperfect interfaces or interphases. Theoretical predictions of stress transfer were compared to experimental Raman spectroscopy results. The results agreed well and were used to measure interface properties. The strain energy was integrated to get total strain energy in a fiber/matrix fragment. It is proposed that this result will be useful for developing fracture mechanics models of the fragmentation test.