Tensile mechanical behavior of T300 and M40J fiber bundles at different strain rate

Tensile mechanical behavior of T300 fiber bundles and M40J fiber bundles have been studied in the strain rate range from 0.001 1/s to 1300 1/s and complete stress strain curves were obtained. Results show that both ultimate strength and failure strain of two materials are strain rate insensitive, and T300 fiber and M40J fiber can be regarded as strain rate insensitive materials. On basis of the fiber bundles model and the statistic theory of fiber strength, single Weibull distribution model and bimodal Weibull distribution model have been developed to describe mechanical behavior of fiber bundles. And a method for determine the statistic parameters of fibers by tensile tests of fiber bundles is established, too. The simulated stress strain curves from the model are in good agreement with the test data. Simulated results show that the strength of T300 fiber can be described by single Weibull distribution function, and the strength of M40J fiber should be described by bimodal Weibull distribution function. (C) 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers.