On the way to the equivalence between measured parameters using non-notched and notched woven specimens of SiC/C/SiC composites

2D woven Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMCs) are characterized by a coarse-structure. For instance, in SiC-SiC CMCs, the structural element (the infiltrated bundle of fibers) as well as the high porosity (15%) hinder all attempts to use Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) to establish a design parameter based on the R-curve concept. One source of skepticism is that LEFM is based on the continuity of the stress-strain field which cannot be reasonably assumed to be on common specimen sizes of 2D woven CMCs (size effects). The scope of this work is to step back on the database accumulated on CMCs, starting from LEFM and to compare the results to tensile stress-strain ones. The perspective (which call not be fully summarized in this paper, due to the low number of pages permitted) is that R-curve behavior of woven CMCs can be implicitly issued from the evaluation of (i) the tendency of CMCs to develop matrix microcracking, (ii) the analysis of the shear stress transfer at the fiber-matrix interface and (iii) the study of stochastic aspects governing the failure of fibers and bundles. These interactive parameters provide for the evaluation of the characteristic of the composite : namely, the traction forces at the fiber-matrix interface, and can be assessed from tensile sigma-epsilon curves of micro, mini, or macrocomposites. Also, since the use of CMCs is expected as complex reinforcement structures (2D, 3D, ...), the introduction of a comprehensive treatment of textile structural CMCs (starting from representative unit cells), through the bridging of knowledge in the structures, mechanics and behavior of textile materials, should be emphasized.