Failure of Fiber Composites
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Ceramic materials are becoming increasingly important,
e.g., in the electronic industry, in the aerospace industry,
for replacement of human body parts, and for fire protection. 
Ceramics materials resist heat, are lightweight, and do not corrode.

Unfortunately, ceramics have a very brittle structure: 
a single defect in the material can easily lead to other 
defects being created, eventually breaking the whole
structure. 

This brittle behavior may be improved if the ceramics are 
reinforced by including fibers of the same or other materials.
The fiber-reinforced material can sustain a higher strain,
and the breaking of one fiber does not necessarily lead
to the breaking of other fibers. The material is thereby
less sensitive to defects that arise in the production of
the material. 

The aim of this project is to implement a model of fiber 
failure, as described in [1]. The model describes how the 
fibers in the fiber-reinforced material fail when the 
material is strained, and it describes how the failure 
of a few fibers influences the strength of the material.
The model is relatively simple, and we plan to extend
the model to include some more effects of real materials.


[1] I. J. Beyerlein and S. L. Phoenix, Statistics of 
fracture for an elastic notched composite lamina containing 
Wiebull fibers - Part I, Engineering Fracture Mechanics
vol. 57 pp. 241-165 (1997).