Papers by Author: F.M. Zhao

Abstract: Phase-stepping photoelasticity has been used to study the fragmentation of an E-glass fibre in epoxy resin and examine quantitatively the effect of a transverse matrix crack on the stress transfer at an interphase. Unsized glass fibre was coated by plasma polymerisation with a crosslinked conformal film of 90% acrylic acid and 10% 1,7-octadiene. The micro-mechanical response at the fibre-matrix interphase and in the adjacent matrix has been described in detail using contour maps of fringe order. From these, the interfacial shear stress profiles at fibre-break have been calculated.