Reducing stress concentrations in static and fatigue tensile tests on unidirectional composite materials: A review

The longitudinal tensile strength is an important basic property of unidirectional (UD) composites or plies that often governs failure in multidirectional laminates. The standard tensile testing methods almost always result in sample failure near the grip. Finite element analyses revealed the presence of multiaxial stress concentrations, including longitudinal, transverse, and shear stresses in the tabbed section of the standards' recommended design. There are still unknowns and uncertainties about the causes of these stress concentrations and ways to eliminate them. A major challenge is obtaining acceptable failure within the gauge section and yielding the highest tensile strength of UD composites. This paper reviews the different methods for performing quasi-static and fatigue tensile tests on UD composites. The primary sources of stress concentrations and the parameters that affect them are reviewed using the available experimental and modeling investigations. We survey the effects of the different specimen and end tab designs as well as test setups on quasi-static and fatigue loading. Specific proposals are made for each of the discussed parameters for more reliable results.