GENERAL EXPRESSION OF THE SHEAR LAG ANALYSIS FOR UNIDIRECTIONAL ELASTIC FIBER - ELASTIC MATRIX COMPOSITES

In the shear lag analysis to calculate stress concentrations arising from cut fibers in composites, an approximation, that only the fibers carry applied stress and the matrix only transfers stress to fibers, has been made. Due to this approximation, the application of this analysis has been limited. In the present work, a general expression of the shear lag analysis which treats both fibers and matrix as stress carriers and also as stress transfer medium is presented. The present method was applied to estimate influences of the ratios of Young's modulus of the fiber to that of the matrix, volume fraction of fiber and scatter of fiber spacing on stress concentration factor ahead of cut fiber and matrix.