Damage evolution of Nextel 610TM alumina fibre reinforced aluminium Original Research Article

It is shown that tensile testing of continuous fibre reinforced composite specimens with varying gauge lengths above the matrix melting temperature provides a method for the measurement of fibre damage within the composite. This method is applied to a composite wire of alumina fibres reinforcing a pure Al or an Al – 2%Cu matrix. It is found that the wire contains a finite initial level of fibre damage. Fibre damage accumulation caused by composite tensile straining is also measured by applying the method to previously stressed wire samples. The rate of damage accumulation for a single phase matrix composite is well described by the Weibull parameters of the virgin fibre, indicating that fibre strength is unaffected by composite processing. The presence of brittle second phases in the matrix increases, however, the rate of damage accumulation as compared to the rate expected from single fibre Weibull statistics.