Modified Weibull Distribution for Analyzing the Tensile Strength of Bamboo Fibers

There is growing evidence that the standard Weibull strength distribution is not always accurate for the description of variability in tensile strength and its dependence on the gauge size of brittle fibers. In this work, a modified Weibull model by incorporating the diameter variation of bamboo fiber is proposed to investigate the effect of fiber length and diameter on the tensile strength. Fiber strengths are obtained for lengths ranging from 20 to 60 mm and diameters ranging from 196.6 to 584.3 mu m through tensile tests. It is shown that as the within-fiber diameter variation increases, the fracture strength of the bamboo fiber decreases. In addition, the accuracy of using weak-link scaling predictions based on the standard and modified Weibull distribution are assessed, which indicates that the use of the modified distribution provides better correlation with the experimental data than the standard model. The result highlights the accuracy of the modified Weibull model for characterizing the strength and predicting the size dependence of bamboo fiber.