• Composites Research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.44-50
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• 2003

The damage zone around a crack tip occurring before the fracture is a significant domain. which affects the toughening mechanism of materials. In this study. the growth process of damage zone in the vicinity of crack tip for rubber-modified epoxy resin is investigated using an acoustic emission(AE) analysis. The weight fractions of rubber(CTBN 1300$\times$B) in rubber-modified epoxy resin are 5 wt% and 15 wt%. The fracture toughness($K_{IC}$) and the fracture energy($G_{IC}$) were measured using 3 point bending single-edge notched specimens. The damage zone and rubber particles distributed around the crack tip were observed by a polarized optical microscope and an atomic force microscope(AFM). The damage zone around crack tip of rubber-modified epoxy resin was formed at 13 % loading and developed until 57 % loading of the fracture load. The crack initiated at 57 % loading grew repeatedly in the stick-slip propagation behavior. Based on time-frequency analysis, it was confirmed that AE signals with frequency bands of 0.15~0.20 MHz and 0.20~0.30 MHz were generated from cavitation and stable/unstable cracking inside the damage zone.