Determination of Mode-I Fracture Toughness of Epoxy-Glass Fibre Composite Laminate

The conventional materials fail to meet the requirements of high technology applications like space applications. In order to meet the requirements like high temperature and wear resistance new materials are being searched. The composite laminar for testing will be prepared with glass fiber rain forced with epoxy. The applications of composite materials have recently increased because of their high strength/stiffness for lower weight, superior fatigue characteristics, and facility to change fiber orientations etc. At the same time, these materials pose new problems such as inter ply cracking, inter laminar de-lamination and fiber cracking. Composite materials failure can be reduced by increasing fracture toughness. Our Aim is to evaluate the fracture toughness of glass fiber/epoxy composites. These composites were prepared with glass fiber reinforced with epoxy based polymer. The fracture Toughness of the specimen is used to conduct mode-I fracture test using special loading fixtures as per ASTM standards.