Ductile Fracture Analysis of Notched Epoxy Nanocomposites Reinforced with Graphene Oxide Nanoparticles Using the Equivalent Material Concept

In this research, the load-bearing capacities of epoxy-based nanocomposite specimens containing rounded-tip V-shaped notches made of epoxy resin LR 630 and nanographene oxide were studied both experimentally and theoretically under pure opening mode conditions. In order to fabricate the studied specimens, first, the tensile properties and fracture toughness of pure epoxy resin and nanocomposite materials were determined by uniaxial monotonic tension and three-point bending tests. Rectangular plates containing a central rhombic hole with four blunt V-shaped corners with a notch angle of 60° and radii of 1, 2, and 4 mm were utilized as the samples for fracture tests. Then, the samples were subjected to uniaxial tensile loading, and their load-carrying capacities (LCC) were measured. For theoretical predictions, due to the ductile behavior of the studied specimens, a combination of the equivalent material concept (EMC) with the well-known brittle fracture criterion, maximum tangential stress (MTS), was employed. Then, experimental and theoretical results were compared. The results of the experiment showed that by adding nanoparticles to the epoxy resin, its strength improved by about 8%, and it was found that the maximum discrepancy between the theoretical and experimental results was related to the groove with a radius of 4 mm, approximately 9.2%. Finally, it was observed that the new criterion (EMC-MTS) could predict the experimental results well without performing any time-consuming and complex elastic-plastic analysis.