Relationship between Bending Modulus and Test Sizes of Laminated Glass/Polyester Composites

The effect of span-to-thickness ratio (L/h) on the bending modulus was investigated in warp, 45°, 67.5° and weft directions in woven glass fiber reinforced polyester laminates. Using classical beam theory the results of the bending tests carried out for L/h = 5,..,50 were extended to the total range of definition (0≤L/h<∞) by applying rational fractional and exponential fractional functions. The extensions take the asymptotic behavior of the bending test for L/h = 0 and L/h = ∞ in account while providing the best fitting to the measured data. It has been shown that the exponential fractional estimations give better results regarding the form of functions that is independent from the directions.