摘要

Polymer composites filled with hard inorganic particles of nano- to micro-scaled sizes show a very complex variation of fracture toughness with increasing particle fraction. Various failure mechanisms such as particle debonding, matrix yielding and subsequent brittle or ductile matrix fracture develop during crack propagation. In this work, these failure mechanisms within a dissipation zone are considered for the calculation of composite fracture toughness. It is shown that their influencing extent depends on critical values of composite strain or stress, respectively. The variation of composite fracture toughness with material and structural properties, such as the relation between the debonding strain and matrix yield strain, matrix yielding energy and particle volume fraction, is discussed.