Evaluation of Plastic Zone around the Crack Tip in Polyester-Based Clay Nanocomposites: An Analytical Study

The resistance of composite materials to crack propagation is greatly influenced by the fracture toughness of that material. Brittle fracture in solidmaterials in the form of crack growth is governed by the stress field around the crack tip and by parameters that describe the resistance of the material to crackgrowth. Thus, the analysis of stresses near the crack tip constitutes an essential part of fracture mechanics. In this study, an analytical methodology ispresented for evaluation of the stress intensity factor and plastic zone around the crack tip of polyester-based clay nanocomposites that its experimentalresults is available from previous works. By using superposition principle, a complete analytical solution based on complex potential function method andthe integral transform method for an embedded crack in nanocomposite specimen is carried out, and critical stresses for fracture is obtained. Finally, the characteristics of the crack tip stress and its plastic zone are discussed.

کلیدواژه ها:

Stress intensity factor ، Nanocomposites ، Fracture mechanics ، Plastic zone