Loading rate effect as a function

of the span-to-depth ratio in

three-point bend testing of
unidirectional puitruded
composites
R. BOUKHILI,P. HUBERTand R. GAUVlN

(Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada)

Three-point bend tests were performed on pultruded half-round cross-

section rods of glass fibre-reinforced polyester and glass fibre-reinforced
epoxy, the tests being arranged so that the specimen was unloaded as soon
as the deflection corresponding to the maximum load was reached. This
testing method enabled the fracture mechanisms at maximum loads to be
mapped as a function of the loading rate and the span-to-depth ratios. An
effect highlighted by this map is that a specimen tested at intermediate
span-to-depth ratios may result in a purely tensile fracture at low loading
rates and a purely shear fracture at high loading rates. This behaviour is
interpreted as being due to the fact that the increase in loading rate increases
the brittleness of the material, subsequently increasing the defect sensitivity
and leading to a shear fracture. This explanation is supported by fracture
surface observations. In addition, it was found that the shear strength
increases significantly with increasing loading rate up to 5000 mm min -1 and
then starts to decrease slightly. The decrease in shear strength at very high
loading rates was found to correspond to multiple cracking behaviour rather
than to a longitudinal fracture plane as for intermediate loading rates.

Key words: composite materials; pultrusion; three-point bending; loading

rate effect; span-to-depth ratio effect; fracture mechanisms

Pultrusion is an automated and continuous moulding
process used to produce fibre-reinforced composites
having constant cross-sectional profiles. The advan-
tages and versatility of the process have enabled
pultrusions to penetrate such market areas as land
transportation, aircraft, construction, marine, etc 1. The
integration of composite materials in many structural
applications requires a good knowledge of their behav-
iour under various loading and environmental condi-
tions. However, the method of determining the basic
properties and behaviours related to static and impact
loading are still a matter of discussion. Static behaviour
is generally investigated by axial and bending tests
performed at low loading rates and for which the
specimen geometry is chosen in order to achieve the
stress state and the fracture mode desired. Impact
behaviour is commonly investigated by impact tests
(tensile or bending) and the energy necessary to
fracture ~ standard specimen is measured.
Due to its simplicity, the three-point bending configu-
0010-4361/91/010039-07 ~) 1991 Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd
COMPOSITES. VOLUME 22. NUMBER 1. JANUARY 1991
ration is widely used for the determination of static as
well as impact properties. Consequently, the idea to
relate the results of impact tests to those of three-point
bending tests is attractive, because the readily apparent
difference between the two tests is the loading rate.
Secondly, this idea is worthwhile, particularly in the
case of pultruded composite beams which are generally
used in applications where bending under impact or
static loads are common 2,3. Unfortunately, relating
impact and three-point bending tests is not an easy
matter in the case of composite materials since the
analysis and interpretation of the impact test itself is
still unclear, as is well illustrated in Reference 4.
As stated by Hayes and Adams 5, 'To achieve a full
understanding of the impact response of composite
materials, a test method is needed that has the capabil-
ity of isolating the individual material properties.
Similarly a test that would allow the chronological
mapping of the failure mechanisms and the rate depen-
dence of these failure mechanisms and material proper-
39
ties, would aid the designer in predicting the failure of a
dynamically loaded part.'
Justifications of such a need are numerous. For
example, most impact-related investigations describe
the fracture of impacted, three-point bending, unidirec-
tional composite specimens as a mixed-mode failure
combining interlaminar shear and tensile or compres-
sive fracture. Since these failure mechanisms do not
involve the same material properties, one could ask
about the contribution of each of these mechanisms to
the measured property, generally the fracture energy,
as well as about the physical significance of this energy.
Consequently, knowledge of the failure mechanisms
chronologically is a prime necessity not only for proper
ranking and design of composite materials, but also for
possible improvement of the impact response of these
materials.
Determination of which fracture mechanism had
started first means, in the case of a three-point bending
specimen, which of o u (the tensile strength) or Xu (the
shear strength) has been reached first. This is of prime
interest in the case of unidirectional composites since
o u and Zu do not involve the same material elements
(fibre and matrix). Furthermore, improvement of one
of these properties, shear strength or tensile strength,
does not necessarily imply the improvement of the
other. Much worse, an improvement of one of these
properties by a suitable design or material formulation
could lead to a decrease in the other. Consequently, a
Fig. 1 Pultruded unidirectional glass/polyester: (a) typical
misunderstanding of the first fracture mechanism will cross-section view; (b) a resin-rich region
lead to improper design or material formulation.
In laboratory testing, these difficulties are circum- radius (r) and 400 mm length. The exact formulation of
vented by using 'appropriate' specimen dimensions, the resins used is not available from the suppliers.
which in three-point loading is the span-to-depth ratio Some sample cross-sections of the materials used were
L/d. This appropriate L/d ratio is chosen based on viewed in a Jeol 820 scanning electron microscope
static tests. In order to achieve an interlaminar shear (SEM) in order to obtain an insight into the distributions
fracture, the L/d ratio should be less than 56. To of microvoids and resin-rich regions. In Fig. l(a), which
achieve a tensile fracture, L/d should be more than 167. shows a typical general view of the cross-section in
It is also generally stated that for 5<L/d<16, a mixed- glass/polyester, the curved lines indicate the resin-rich
mode failure prevails. Besides the fact that this large regions. Such a pattern of lines is characteristic of
area of uncertainty penalizes design with composite pultruded unidirectional composites. Fig. l(b) shows a
materials, one could ask how the extent of this uncer- resin-rich region at a high magnification along with
tain area depends upon test conditions such as the associated microvoids.
environment, temperature and loading rate. In this
paper, an attempt is made to determine the effect of Three-point bending fixture and specimens
loading rate on the fracture mechanisms as function of
the span-to-depth ratio, with a particular emphasis on A three-point bending fixture was designed to allow the
the case of intermediate L/d values and high loading testing of the half-round specimens with support span
rates. lengths varying between 25 and 200 mm. The three-
point bend specimens were cut at eight different
lengths L to obtain L/r ratios ranging from 4.5 to 17.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES The specimens were loaded at the mid-span of the flat
surface, with the round surface down as shown in Fig.
Materials 2. The support anvils were similar to that required by
Two commercial, unidirectional pultruded composite the ASTM standard D4475-85 s. The maximum tensile
materials were used in this study: a glass fibre- stress Omax prevailing in the extreme fibres of the round
reinforced polyester (glass/polyester) from Trench surface and the maximum shear stress 17max prevailing at
Company and a glass fibre-reinforced epoxy (glass/ the neutral plane were calculated using the beam
epoxy) from Mitsubishi Company. The glass fibre theory, and for the case of half-round rods, they are
diameter was about 20 ~tm in the glass/polyester and given by, respectively:
about 10 ~,m in the glass/epoxy. In each material, the Oma x = 1.311PmaxL/r 3 (1)
glass content was 80% by weight and the materials
were received in the form of half-round rods of 6.7 mm "Imp,,= 0.446Pmax/ra (2)

40 COMPOSITES. JANUARY 1991

 P RESUL TS AND DISCUSSION
Fig. 2 Three-point bending fixture and specimen loading
where Pmax is the maximum load, L is the support span
and r is the specimen radius.
Testing
The tests were performed on a servohydraulic MTS
fatigue machine at nine constant cross-head speeds
ranging from 1 to 20 000 mm min -l. The load/
displacement curves were recorded using a data acqui-
sition system linked to an IBM computer on which all
the necessary computations were made.
The use of a fatigue machine was particularly useful for
this investigation for two reasons:
1) it allows an instantaneous unloading of the specimen
at any load or displacement for any loading rate.
Particularly, a test can be run so that the specimen is
unloaded as soon as the displacement at the
maximum load is reached. This will allow a precise
determination of the fracture mechanism corre-
sponding to the maximum load; and
2) the fatigue machine used in this study permits the
reaching of a constant loading rate as high as
20 000 mm min -~, which is almost a low rate
impact. However, this is different from an impact
test where only the incident energy can be con-
trolled.
Finally, additional tests were performed on an instru-
mented pneumatic impact machine (Dynatup GRC-
8250) equipped with an anti-rebound system.
T ..... _Mg2 .......
c5
Time
Fig. 3 Schematic representation of the triangular
displacement/time waveform used and the resulting load/time
response
Fig. 3 is a schematic representation of the triangular
displacement/time waveform used and the resulting
load/time response. To determine the displacement at
which the specimen will be unloaded, a first set of at
least six samples are loaded well above the maximum
load and the displacement d c corresponding to this
maximum load measured. Then the triangular
waveform is readjusted so that the pre-imposed dis-
placement will correspond to the displacement at the
maximum load and a second set of specimens is tested
to determine the fracture mode corresponding to this
maximum load.
Fracture mechanisms mapping
Even though many studies have dealt with the effect of
span-to-depth ratio 9"1 and loading rate 5A~ on the
fracture mechanism, no literature where both effects
are studied simultaneously seems to exist. That is, the
effect of span-to-depth ratio is investigated at a given
loading rate, or the effect of loading rate is investigated
for a given specimen length, which is usually a tensile
specimen.
In this investigation both effects are investigated at the
same time--eight L/r ratios at nine loading rates--and,
as mentioned previously, the three-point bending tests
are arranged so that the fracture mechanism responsi-
ble for first fracture could be determined.
Table 1 maps the fracture mechanisms observed, shear
(S) or tensile (T), for glass/polyester and glass/epoxy
and the corresponding strengths. This means if a shear
fracture is observed, then the shear strength is calcu-
lated using Equation (2), and if tensile fracture is
observed, it is the flexural strength which is calculated
using Equation (1). When tensile and shear fractures
coexist, shear and tensile strengths are calculated. It
should be mentioned that the results obtained with
glass/polyester at low loading rates and small L/r ratios
are not taken into account since they correspond to a
compression fracture mode.
In Table 1, the cases where the two fracture modes
tensile and shear (T/S) are reported correspond to
situations where both ultimate strengths seem to be
reached at the same time. In fact these are cases where
some specimens fail in tension and others fail in shear.
Up to 14 specimens were retested under the same
conditions to determine whether this was a random
effect; however, the number of the specimens failing in
a given mode was too large to be neglected. A possible
explanation of this situation is that, depending on the
amount of processing defects (resin-rich regions and
microvoids) in each specimen, a fraction of the speci-
mens tested fail in shear, another fraction fail in
tension, and a third fraction may fail in a mixed mode.
The latter case can be avoided by a better adjustment
of the preset maximum deflection.
In the following sections and from Table 1, two points
will be discussed: first, the effect of the loading rate on
the apparent interlaminar shear strength (ILS) and on
the flexural strength, and the role of processing defects;
second, the change in fracture mechanism as a function
of loading rate for intermediate L/r ratios.
COMPOSITES. JANUARY 1991 41
Table 1. Fracture mechanisms mapping representing the fracture mechanism compression (C), shear (S)
or tensile (T) and the measured strength Tu or o. in MPa, as a function of the loading rate and the span-to-
depth ratio
Glass fibre-reinforced epoxy

L/r
Cross-head
speed 4.6 4.75 5.5 6.2 6.9 8.3 16 17.6
(ram min -1)

1 S S S S T/S T T T
70.1 75.3 72.1 74.5 1318/65.1 1557 1518 1544
10 S S S S T/S T T T
75 78.1 76.7 77.4 1385/68.5 1649 1631 1629
100 S S S S T/S T/S T T
77.2 84.3 80.4 80.6 1509/74.5 1700/62.3 1695 1771
1000 S S S S S T/S T T
91.8 88 87.2 84 79.2 1757/64.4 1747 1759
10000 S S S S S S T T
87.8 80 85.2 81.3 79.4 66.5 1796 1810
20000 S S S S S S T T
87.6 81 80.5 82.1 80 58.8 1807 1818

Glass fibre-reinforced polyester

L/r
Cross-head
speed 4.5 4.75 5.5 5.9 8.75 8.9 16 17
(mm min -1)

1 C C S S T T T T
46.1 45.6 939 1118 1185 1202
10 C C S S T/S T T T
49.1 54.6 1048/41 1150 1276 1355
100 S S S S T/S T/S T T
60.9 59.5 55.5 55.9 1214/47.1 1230/46.9 1338 1495
1000 S S S S S T/S T T
65.6 67.4 62 60.9 53.7 1403/53.6 1421 1557
10000 S S S S S S T T
69 66.3 66.5 65.2 56 55.2 1593 1546
20000 S S S S S S T T
61.4 62.6 63 62.8 56 56 1595 1631

Dependence of shear and tensile strength on

I00 loading rate
Gloss/epoxy The effect of loading rate on the shear strength could
90
o Gloss/polyester be described by any of the L / r ratios which gives a shear
fracture in a large range of loading rates, since this
8O effect is the same for all of them. From Table 1, L / r =
I
5.5 seems to give the best compromise (the larger
O.
70 loading rates range) for the two materials investigated
# and the results are plotted in a semi-logarithmic
diagram in Fig. 4 along with the scatter bars.
6C
Impact tests From Fig. 4, it can be seen that the shear strength of
5C
both materials increases significantly with loading rate
and reaches a maximum value at 5000 mm min -1.
4C , ,,,,,,,I j , ...... i
Above 5000 mm min -1 the shear strength decreases
iO -I iO 0 i01 IOz IO3 IO4 IO5 IO6 slightly and this decrease seems to be supported by the
Cross-heed speed (mm rain -I ) additional impact tests. However, the overall effect of
the loading rate is larger in the case of glass/polyester
Fig. 4 V a r i a t i o n o f shear s t r e n g t h as a f u n c t i o n o f loading rate
f o r L/r = 5.5
than in the case of glass/epoxy. This is well illustrated in

42 COMPOSITES. JANUARY 1991

 05 0.5

Glass/epoxy o o o Gloss/epoxy
o
04 o Gloss / polyester o 0.4 o Glass/polyester oo o
% o
o O~
0 0
03 0.~
o bo

<h <3 00
0.2 o 0 0.2 0

o 4= o~
Ol 8 '~ o o i Impact tests
Impact tests

O ....... 6 , , ,o,.,,, . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . L , i ...... t . . . . . . . . v

I0- I i00 i01 i02 103 104 105 106 I0 -I I00 IO I I02 I03 104 I05 I06
Cross-head speed (mm rain-I) Cross-heod speed (ram min -I )
Fig. 5 R e l a t i v e i n c r e a s e in s h e a r s t r e n g t h as a f u n c t i o n o f Fig. 7 Relative increase in tensile strength as a f u n c t i o n of
loading rate loading r a t e

Fig. 5 where the relative increase in the shear strength, materials as shown in Figs 5 and 7. A probable explana-
given by: tion of such behaviour is to consider that the positive
effect of the loading rate increase on ~u is diminished by
A on ~/~ = (1; n - 1;o)/T o
a deleterious effect of the pultrusion defects, that is:
where % is the ILS at loading rate of 1 mm rain -~ and x,
the materials contain processing defects such as
is the ILS at another loading rate n, is plotted against
resin-rich regions and microvoids (Fig. l(b));
the loading rate. The larger loading rate effect in the
case of glass/polyester can be related to the fact that the the brittleness of the matrix increases as the loading
polyester resin, being more ductile than the epoxy, is rate increases; and
more prone to viscoelastic effects and consequently is
a brittle matrix is more sensitive to the presence of
more rate sensitive.
defects and consequently the material is more
The effect of loading rate on the flexural strength is sensitive to the processing defects at high loading
described using the L/r ratio of 16 since the observed rates.
fracture is purely tensile independently of the loading
rate. As opposed to the shear strength, the flexural
strength seems to increase continuously over the whole
range of loading rate used, as shown by Fig. 6. The
additional impact results confirm this tendency,
although a large scatter is observed for these tests.
The increase of shear strength and tensile strength as a
function of loading rate may be related to the viscoelas-
tic behaviour of the polymeric matrix. Nevertheless,
the viscoelastic effects are expected to be more pro-
nounced for the shear strength than for the flexural
strength, since the former is a matrix-controlled
property. Actually, the loading rate is found to affect Xu
and o , by approximately the same amount for both
Fig. 8 Resin-rich region in glass/epoxy as a preferential crack
2000 initiation site at high loading rate (20 000 mm min -1)
Glass/epoxy
180C o Gloss/polyester

1600

C 140(

o9
120( Impact t est s

I00 -I . . .' '. . . i , ....... i ........ , . . . . . . . . , , , ...... , , :....... j ........

i00 I00 I01 102 I03 104 105 106
Cross-head speed ( mm rain -I )

Fig. 6 Variation of tensile strength as a function of loading rate Fig. 9 Typical induced impact multiple cracking in a cross-
for L/r = 16 section of glass/polyester

COMPOSITES. JANUARY 1991 43

To support this interpretation, cross-sections of some
specimens loaded to their ultimate load were viewed in
the SEM. These observations show that at high loading
rates the propagating crack initiates preferentially in
the resin-rich regions close to or at the neutral plane as
shown in Fig. 8. The above-mentioned defect sensitiv-
ity also explains the slight decrease of ~u recorded at
very high loading rates and impact tests (Figs 4 and 5).
As a matter of fact, many of the specimens tested at
impact velocities showed a multiple cracking pattern
rather than a shear plane, as shown in Fig. 9 for a
glass/polyester specimen.
Fracture mechanisms as a function of loading rate
The dependence of the fracture mechanisms on the
span-to-depth ratio is mainly controlled by the ratio of
the tensile strength to the shear strength, Based
on Equations (1) and (2), for the half-circle cross-
section used, it can be found that:
o/T = 2.94L/r
Supposing that the values of the shear strength and
flexural strength are known, the L/r ratio correspond-
ing to a mixed-mode failure (shear and flexure) can be
deduced. Since in this investigation it was found that
both the tensile and the shear strengths increase with
increasing loading rate by approximately the same
ratio, the ratio o/~ could be considered as a constant.
6000
Sheor foilure at 2 0 0 0 0 mm rnm- i -'----~/,m
5000 Mixed-mode fmlure o t - - - - - - - - , L . . ~
z4000 IOOm~
~3000
_J
2000
/ I mmmin -I
I000
/-
O0 I I
I
I
2
i
Displacement (mm)
Fig. 10 Typical l o a d / d i s p l a c e m e n t responses for L/r = 8.75 at
different loading rates for glass/polyester
I00
90
8O
60
504 I I I I I I
5 6
Spon- to - depth rotio
Fig, 11 Variation of shear strength as a function of span-to-
depth ratio at high loading rate (10 000 m m min -1)
44 COMPOSITES. JANUARY 1991
In the case of glass/polyester the o/x ratio is approxi-
mately 25. According to Equation (3), this corresponds
to an approximate critical L/r ratio of about 8.5 and,
consequently, specimens tested at this L/r ratio should
fail in a mixed mode. According to Table 1, this is only
true for intermediate loading rates. Actually, the
fracture mechanisms change progressively from purely
tensile at low loading rates to a mixed-mode fracture at
intermediate loading rates and then purely shear at
high loading rates (see Fig. 10).
The evolution of the fracture mechanisms towards
shear with increasing loading rate is again basically
related to the interaction between the loading rate, the
brittleness and the sensitivity to defects, as detailed in
the previous section.
Alternatively, the role of defects can be highlighted by
O/T9'10. the decrease of shear strength with increasing L/r ratio.
Indeed, considering the L/r ratios between 4.5 and 9 at
loading rates above 103 mm min-1, all these specimens
fail in shear and the recorded shear strengths decrease
(3) as the L/r ratios increases (Fig. 11). Since r is constant,
the increase in L/r ratio implies an increase of the
loaded volume and this implies an increase in the
probability to find defects. This in turn explains the
decrease in the shear strength.
CONCLUSIONS
The major feature of this investigation is that the
deflection at the maximum load is pre-imposed and the
/
specimen is unloaded as soon as this deflection is
reached. This method has enabled us to map the
fracture mechanisms involved at the maximum load as
a function of the loading rate and the span-to-depth
ratio. From this mapping, the following conclusions can
be drawn.
1) The shear strength and flexural strength increase
with the loading rate and follow the same general
pattern of behaviour. However, at loading rates
exceeding 5000 mm min-1 the shear strength tends
to decrease slightly due to the sensitivity to process-
I I
3
i
4 ing defects.
2) The loading rate effect is greater in glass/polyester
than in glass/epoxy. This is due to the fact that the
polyester resin is more ductile than the epoxy resin
and, consequently, more rate sensitive.
3) For intermediate span-to-depth ratios, the
o Glass/polyester maximum load results in a tensile fracture at low
Gloss/epoxy
loading rates and a shear fracture at high loading
rates. This behaviour was interpreted as being due
to the fact that the increase in loading rate increases
the brittleness of the material, thereby increasing
the sensitivity to existing defects and leading to a
shear fracture rather than to a tensile fracture.
A readily apparent implication which could be raised
from a mapping such as that shown in Table 1 is that in
the design of pultruded unidirectional composite
beams, the designer should be aware of the fact that the
i I i fracture modes, and hence the design parameters, are
7 8 9
not necessarily the same at low and high loading rates.
Finally, the role of pultrusion processing defects at high
loading rates and impact velocities is a subject which
s h o u l d b e f u r t h e r clarified, p a r t i c u l a r l y w i t h t h e
increasing applications of pultruded structures.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
T h e a u t h o r s wish to t h a n k t h e N a t u r a l Sciences a n d
E n g i n e e r i n g R e s e a r c h C o u n c i l of C a n a d a a n d t h e
F o n d s p o u r la F o r m a t i o n des C h e r c h e u r s et d e l ' A i d e
la R e c h e r c h e for t h e i r financial s u p p o r t .
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AUTHORS
T h e a u t h o r s a r e with t h e D e p a r t m e n t of M e c h a n i c a l
Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique de Montrral, PO
B o x 6079, S t a t i o n A , M o n t r r a l ( Q u r b e c ) , C a n a d a H 3 C
3 A 7 . E n q u i r i e s s h o u l d b e d i r e c t e d to D r B o u k h i l i .
COMPOSITES. JANUARY 1991 45