TENSILE AND COMPRESSIVE QUASI-STATIC BEHAVIOUR OF 40% SHORT GLASS FIBRE - PPS REINFORCED COMPOSITES WITH AND WITHOUT GEOMETRICAL VARIATIONS

In this work, a comprehensive experimental investigation was carried out to characterise the quasi-static tensile and compressive behaviour of notched and plain specimens made of 40% wt. glass fibre-Polyphenylenesulphide (40GF-PPS) short fibre reinforced composite. To this end, plain and notched specimens (with notch radius ranging from 0.25 mm to 10 mm) were manufactured with two different fibre orientation angles (0◦ and 90◦) and tested under tension and compression, allowing to observe the effect of the notch root radius and the notch geometry. In addition, a careful analysis was carried out both at the macroscopic and microscopic level to compare the fracture behaviour of plain and notched specimens. Finally, a Generalised-Stress-Intensity-Factor-based approach was adopted to correlate the tensile strength of notched specimens. On the contrary, the compressive strength of the notched samples was rationalised in terms of the nominal net-stress, thanks to the limited notch sensitivity exhibited by the material during the compression tests.