TY - GEN A1 - Marotzke, Christian T1 - The influence of local defects and nonlinear matrix behaviour on the failure process of fiber reinforced composites N2 - The aim of the paper is to analyse the failure process taking place on microscale in fiber reinforced composites. The failure is initiated at microscopical defects presumingly in the interface. The circumferential propagation of interface cracks starting at microdefects in unidirectional plies under transverse loading is studied using a representative volume element. First a linear elastic fracture mechanical analysis of interface cracks in a carbon fiber reinforced epoxy resin is performed by calculating the mixed mode energy release rate using the virtual crack closure method. The influence of the fiber spacing is studied by varying the fiber volume fraction. The total energy release rate rapidly grows after crack initiation indicating an unstable crack propagation. The first phase is dominated by mode I. The mode II energy release rate starts slightly delayed but surpasses the mode I part after a short crack length. By increasing the fiber volume fraction the maximum of the energy release rate shifts to smaller crack angles. T2 - ECCM17 CY - Munich, Germany DA - 27.06.2016 KW - fracture mechanics KW - interface crack KW - plasticity PY - 2016 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/36906 AN - OPUS4-36906 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany