Conditions for Pseudo Strain-Hardening in Fiber Reinforced Brittle Matrix Composites

Abstract

Apart from imparting increased fracture toughness, one of the useful purposes of reinforcing brittle matrices with fibers is to create enhanced composite strain capacity. This paper reviews the conditions underwhich such a composite will exhibit the pseudo strain-hardening phenomenon. The presentation is given in a unified manner for both continuous aligned and discontinuous random fiber composites. It is demonstrated that pseudo strain-hardening can be practically designed for both types of composites by proper tailoring of material structures.