Development of a single fiber fragmentation test for high strain rates

A new, high-strain-rate test of the fiber–matrix interface is described. The test is an adaptation of the single fiber fragmentation test, which has been conducted only at low strain rates up to now. Like its low-rate counterpart, the new, high-rate test is intended for providing comparisons of fiber surface treatments used in interface tailoring. The new test will be valuable whenever interface tailoring is the strategy used for enhancement of composite performance at high rates. Test validation was carried out on three different fiber–matrix systems, with low-rate results on those systems used as controls. The high-rate test was found to provide a reliable evaluation of whether interface improvements demonstrated at low rate are also evident at high rate.