In this study, the effects of low amount (0.1 wt%) multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) distributed homogenously in epoxy via cationic surfactant (cetyl pyridiniumchloride-CPC), polyacrylonitrile nanofiber (in the range of 240-570 nm diameter) mats between each lamina, main fiber-matrix interface improvement using γ-Glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane and intermediate combinations were investigated on the fracture toughness of E-Glass/epoxy laminate. Considering the data obtained from three-point bending test samples with a single edge crack, it was found that the ultimate bending strength, modulus and fracture toughness of the silane-treated samples increased by 25.6%, 4.9 and 16.6% respectively, with respect to the reference sample. When MWCNTs was added to the silane treated sample, it was observed that it did not enhance the fracture toughness and decreased the strength and modulus slightly (1%) with the effect of CPC. The effect of 128 μm thick nanofiber mats on the silane-treated sample did not occur as expected and was found to cause delamination by working as a separate layer between the laminae.

In this paper, using Creager and Paris's blunt elliptical hole stress distribution area equation, it is applied to crack and circular hole shaped defects using the theoretical radius value, which equalizes the maximum stress at the defect tip in terms of value to fracture toughness. By providing value equality, critical fracture stresses of all defect dimensions and tensile strength of the material were determined with a single mechanical test data. Compared with the predictions of other methodologies, it was determined that the obtained data gave results closer to the experimental values.

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This paper offers the use of stress concentration factor in determining the critical fracture stress and fracture toughness of polymeric composite materials at various crack length ratios. The stress intensity factor has been turned into a function of the stress concentration factor derived from the maximum stress occurring at the notch tip and the tip stress generated by the force applied to the sample. This conversion allowed the use of a fixed theoretical radius (1.2732 mm) instead of the actual radius of the notch or crack. On the edge cracked three-point bending and tensile samples, the specified method detects the three point bending fracture stresses with a maximum error rate of 1.2%. This study also establishes a relationship between the clamped end and the pin-loaded tensile specimens and states that the underlying mechanism of the stress intensity factor of the clamped end tensile specimen is based on the normalization of the stress intensity factor of the pin-loaded conditions with the geometric correction factor.

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