Tensile failure of notched fiber‐reinforced composite materials

The weibull brittle failure model is used to described the tensile strength degradation of a fiber‐reinforced composite material in the presence of a notch. This model uses the description of the state of stress near the notch and the Weibull shape parameter from a series of unnotched tensile tests. The Weibull‐model strengtyh degradation is evaluated using numerical integration of a reduced, one‐dimensional tensile volume. The numberical Weibull integral results are compared with the point stress failure theory. The comparison suggests that the two parameters of the point stress theory stem form the single Weibull shape parameter. The integral results are shown to be conservative when compared with data for two graphite. epoxy systems.