<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The presence of geometric discontinuity in a material reduces considerably its resistance to mechanical stresses, therefore reducing the service life of materials. The analysis of structural behaviour in the presence of geometric discontinuities is important to ensure the proper use, especially if it is regarding a material of weak mechanical properties such as a polymer. The objective of the present work is to analyse the effect of the notch presence of variable geometric shapes on the tensile strength of epoxy-type polymer specimens. A series of tensile tests were carried out on standardised specimens, taking into account the presence or absence of a notch. Each series of tests contains five specimens. Two notch shapes were considered: circular (hole) and elliptical. The experimental results in terms of stress–strain clearly show that the presence of notches reduces considerably the resistance of the material, where the maximum stress for the undamaged specimen was 41.22 MPa and the lowest stress for the elliptical-notched specimen was 11.21 MPa. A numerical analysis by the extended finite element method (XFEM) was undertaken on the same geometric models; in addition, the results in stress–strain form were validated with the experimental results. A remarkable improvement was obtained (generally an error within 0.06%) for strain, maximum stress, Young’s modulus and elongation values. An exponential decrease was noted in the stress, strain, and Young’s modulus in the presence of a notch in the material.</p>
</abstract>

The presence of geometric discontinuity in a material reduces considerably its resistance to mechanical stresses, therefore reducing the service life of materials. The analysis of structural behaviour in the presence of geometric discontinuities is important to ensure the proper use, especially if it is regarding a material of weak mechanical properties such as a polymer. The objective of the present work is to analyse the effect of the notch presence of variable geometric shapes on the tensile strength of epoxy-type polymer specimens. A series of tensile tests were carried out on standardised specimens, taking into account the presence or absence of a notch. Each series of tests contains five specimens. Two notch shapes were considered: circular (hole) and elliptical. The experimental results in terms of stress–strain clearly show that the presence of notches reduces considerably the resistance of the material, where the maximum stress for the undamaged specimen was 41.22 MPa and the lowest stress for the elliptical-notched specimen was 11.21 MPa. A numerical analysis by the extended finite element method (XFEM) was undertaken on the same geometric models; in addition, the results in stress–strain form were validated with the experimental results. A remarkable improvement was obtained (generally an error within 0.06%) for strain, maximum stress, Young’s modulus and elongation values. An exponential decrease was noted in the stress, strain, and Young’s modulus in the presence of a notch in the material.

Experimental and Numerical Study of the Effect of the Presence of a Geometric Discontinuity of Variable Shape on the Tensile Strength of an Epoxy Polymer

Laboratoire de Matériaux et Mécanique des Structures (LMMS)

Laboratoire de Matériaux, et Mécanique des Structures (LMMS)

Acta Mechanica et Automatica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The presence of geometric discontinuity in a material reduces considerably its resistance to mechanical stresses, therefore reducing the service life of...

Experimental and Numerical Study of the Effect of the Presence of a Geometric Discontinuity of Variable Shape on the Tensile Strength of an Epoxy Polymer

Published Online: Mar 19, 2023

Page range: 192 - 199

Received: Oct 25, 2022

Accepted: Jan 02, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ama-2023-0022

Keywords
Tensile test, Hole-notched, Elliptical-notched, XFEM, Finite element method

© 2023 Khalissa Saada et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Experimental and Numerical Study of the Effect of the Presence of a Geometric Discontinuity of Variable Shape on the Tensile Strength of an Epoxy Polymer

Published Online: Mar 19, 2023

Page range: 192 - 199

Received: Oct 25, 2022

Accepted: Jan 02, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ama-2023-0022

KeywordsTensile test, Hole-notched, Elliptical-notched, XFEM, Finite element method

© 2023 Khalissa Saada et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Tensile test, Hole-notched, Elliptical-notched, XFEM, Finite element method