A Study on the Fracturing Behavior of Thermoset Polymer Nanocomposites

TL;DR

This paper investigates the fracturing behavior of thermoset polymer nanocomposites, emphasizing the importance of considering the nonlinear Fracture Process Zone (FPZ) effects, which significantly impact fracture energy estimates.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of fracture tests highlighting the critical role of nonlinear FPZ effects, challenging the common reliance on Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM).

Findings

Nonlinear FPZ effects are significant in most fracture tests.

LEFM can underestimate fracture energy by up to 157%.

Size and nanofiller content influence fracture energy estimates.

Abstract

This work proposes an investigation on the fracturing behavior of polymer nanocomposites. Towards this end, the study leverages on the analysis of a large bulk of fracture tests from the literature with the goal of critically investigating the effects of the nonlinear Fracture Process Zone (FPZ). It is shown that for most of the fracture tests, the effects of the nonlinear FPZ are not negligible, leading to significant deviations from Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM). As the data indicate, this aspect needs to be taken into serious consideration since the use of LEFM to estimate mode I fracture energy, which is common practice in the literature, can lead to an error as high as 157% depending on the specimen size and nanofiller content.