Fracture toughness of laminates reinforced by piezoelectric z-pins

• Analysis on the reinforcement of fracture toughness by piezoelectric z-pins based on the pullout model and the DCB model.
• Parametric study on the effects of material parameters, especially the piezoelectric parameters.
• Quantitative analysis of the effects of z-pin radius and distribution on the reinforcement of fracture toughness.

The reinforcing effect of piezoelectric z-pins to Mode-I fracture toughness of laminates is investigated in the present paper on the basis of the piezoelectric fiber pullout model and the double-cantilever-beam (DCB) model. Our results on the effect of electrical loads show that piezoelectric z-pins can significantly improve the fracture toughness of laminates to resist the laminates delamination and the reinforcement effect can be adjusted by applying an external electrical load. Moreover, the influences of material parameters, radius and distribution of z-pins are discussed. This study provides a useful reference to achieve the optimal design of smart laminate composites.