An experimental stud on the tensile behavior of a unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced aluminum composite at different strain rates

In this paper, dynamic and quasi-static tensile behavior of a unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced aluminum composite (Cf/Al) have been studied. The complete stress-strain curves of the composite in strain rate range from 0.001 to 1000 s(-1) were obtained. The experimental results show that the tensile strength and critical strain of the Cf/Al composite are strain rate-sensitive. Micro-graphs show the presence of surface cracks as well as internal cracks in the fibers. A coated fiber bundles model has been combined with Weibull strength distribution function to establish a one-dimensional damage constitutive equation for the Cf/Al composite. This study shows that the strength of the Cf/Al composite can be described by a bimodal Weibull distribution function. The scale parameter sigma(0) and shape parameter beta of the Weibull distribution and their relationship with strain rate are obtained from the experimental results. The simulated stress-strain curves from the model are in good agreement with the test data. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.