Tensile Response of Epoxy and Glass/Epoxy Composites at Low and Medium Strain Rate Regimes

The present research work is to study the effect of low and medium strain rates on tensile behavior of epoxy and glass/epoxy composites. The digital image correlation (DIC) technique is employed for evaluating full-field strain contour plots using high-speed CMOS camera, which captures about 100,000 frames per second. Stress-strain measurements are reported for epoxy and glass/epoxy composites for strain rates ranging from 0.0001 - 450 s-1 and the variation of modulus, strength and strain to failure with strain rate is studied. A non-linear regression function is used to predict the tensile properties of epoxy and glass/epoxy composites at both low and medium strain rates regimes. The results reveal that the tensile strength and modulus increases with increase in strain rate for epoxy and glass/epoxy composites. The fracture surfaces of tensile specimens are investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to understand the influence of strain rate on fracture morphology.